Amakor abductions: The syndicate behind the crime.
3 min read
Saturday 27 May 2023 regrettably remains a bad day the indigenes of Amakor Autonomous Community and the entire Umuaka Municipal Council, Njaba LGA Imo State will never forget in a hurry in years to come. On this day, four children of the community named, Jemine Divine, (4 years old), Jemine Isaiah, (2 years old), Ugwuegbu Victor, (2 years old) and Ugwuegbu Success, (4 years old), were abducted by two notorious female child traffickers who pretended as new tenants in the same compound the abducted children were living with their parents and siblings. Umuaka Times gathered that the abduction took place just 24 hours after the female child traffickers officially took possession of their apartment. The abductors were able to convince the children to follow them after they had lied to them and others that they wanted to help the children take their hair-cuts in at a nearby haircut saloon as their Children’s Day gift. Stylishly, they took the children away from the compound and that was the last anyone had seen or heard of them again.
When Umuaka Times reporters arrived in Amakor on Sunday May 28, 2023, the entire building and was like a ghost house. Nobody was in the compound to speak to Umuaka Times as they had all fled for fear of unknown.
Investigations by Umuaka Times showed that there is an organized criminal syndicate that has been the engine behind several abductions of children across Nigeria in the recent time. In Abuja, precisely in Bako town of Kwali Area Council, two children identified as two year old male named Marwan and her elder 5 year old sister named Hauwa were abducted on Wednesday May 31, 2023, that is, 4 days after the Amakor abduction.
The abduction in Abuja had a striking resemblance with the Amakor abduction. Both were carried out by two new female tenants. In Abuja, the female child traffickers pretended to take the two children out to buy them biscuits while their mother was praying. That was the last time the woman saw her children again.
Questions have been asked in certain quarters by some individuals; why is it that the abduction method both in Abuja and Amakor were exactly the same? Can it be the same gang operating across the country?
In Ogun State, three children were kidnapped by new tenants just 24 hours after moving in. The incident which took place on Itsekiri Street, Ajuwon, Ogun State also attracted the attention of the police and others within the neighbourhood. The incident which took place in the month of February also left no traces concerning the abductors and abductees. The new female tenants while making payment for the apartment claimed to be students of a school in Ikeja Lagos and would use the apartment for just three weeks for their exams.
Umuaka Times also came across another report where yet another two female tenants abducted the children of their landlord. The incident which occurred in Ovia North-East LGA of Edo State was said to have successfully been carried out by two women identified simply as Rose and Mercy. The children who were kidnapped were also identified as Christabel 2 and Amada 4 respectively. Till date, no clue on the whereabouts of the innocent kids has been established.
So far, Umuaka Times can adequately confirm that a new criminal syndicate has arrived in the criminal horizon of Nigeria where women who pose as tenants are used as willing tools to kidnap children for trafficking or ritual purposes. The gangs of child abductors cut across many areas of the country and they can strike at any time when parents or the guardians of children feel less concerned over their subjects. They can even create a scenario which will convince parents to willingly give out their children on trust to them and they will vanish.
Parents in Umuaka have been advised to take more care of their children and report any suspicious move by anybody towards their children. Landlords and landladies have also been issued a warning to always profile their prospective tenants properly and establish confirmations before giving out their houses to them.
For now, the situation in Amakor still appears clueless.
