Police rescue victims from suspected child trafficker

The Osun State Police Command has rescued two additional stolen children from a suspected child-stealing gang already in its custody. Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Olafimihan Adeoye, disclosed this on Wednesday while parading the suspects at the Command Headquarters in Osogbo.

He said the recovery of the two additional children was made possible through the earlier media reports of the arrest of the gang.

“Two weeks ago, the media widely reported the arrest of two men, a Reverend father and a woman, by the command, who kidnapped and later sold an 18-month-old baby boy they stole in Osogbo.

“This report prompted a couple from Ganmon area in Kwara, whose three and five-year-old daughters were stolen in Ilorin, to check with the Command to see if those arrested were the same people who stole their daughters.

“When the couple saw the suspects in our custody, it was discovered that it was the same gang that stole their daughters and further investigation launched by the Command led to the recovery of their children,” Mr Adeoye said.

In another development, the police also arrested four men in Ibadan for allegedly forging various certificates, especially academic certificates.

According to the Police Commissioner, the suspects were arrested after a graduate of the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree asked someone to help her collect her certificate from her school.

He noted that, “Instead of the person sent to collect the certificate from the school, he went to patronise the forgers who issued a forged certificate to her.

“When the certificate owner, however, took the certificate to her school to be verified, the school denied issuing it and this led to her reporting the matter to the police and the subsequent arrest of the forgers.”

Adeoye further highlighted the case of a 400-level student of the Osun State University, Olaniyan Joshua, who has been in the news and trending on social media for being missing after passing the night at the Ojodu Police Station in Lagos.

He said the boy is now in their custody, adding that he is hale and hearty was never missing in the first place, that he just decided on his own to go into hiding and incommunicado.

Parading the boy before reporters, the Police Commissioner said the boy, after informing one of his friends that he was going to pass the night at the Ojodu Police Station, decided to sleep somewhere else.

He said he later travelled to Ilorin (Kwara State) the next morning where he said he went to look for menial jobs, in order to raise money to pay his school fee which he had invested/squandered on the failed MMM ponzi scheme.

Adeoye said it is of note to state that the boy who is now in 400 level, paid his last school fee while in 200 level and was now looking for ways to raise money to pay his outstanding school fees, which prompted his decision to go to Ilorin.

He added that the police (which hitherto was being accused on social media of knowing something about the supposed missing boy), was forced to fish out the boy with the help of the DSS, as the case was becoming an embarrassment and denting the image of the force.

The police boss, therefore, warned people to use the social media reasonably, stating that the false accusations that the police knew something about the boy’s disappearance was very damaging. He was, however, happy that the police had been exonerated as the said boy never went to Ojodu Police Station.