Nine-man kidnap syndicate arrested in Benue

A nine-man kidnap syndi­cate whose stock-in-trade was to buy and sell babies of unsuspecting young ladies are now cooling their heels in the net f the Benue State Police Command.

Among the arrested suspects was a lady who sold her two months old baby for a pittance sum of N14,000.00. The parading of the suspects was car­ried out following the outcry of some women whose children had been kid­napped at different locations in Benue in the last two months.

Recall that the hapless mothers had on Thursday ambushed the state gov­ernor, Chief Samuel Ortom at a func­tion and begged him to help fast-track the recovery of their missing babies by child kidnappers.

Parading the suspects at the state Police Command yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Offi­cer (PPRO), ASP Austin Ezeani dis­closed that the group had formed a ring around the length and breadth of the state abducting and trading with babies within the range of one month to six years old.

The state police spokesman told newsmen yesterday that the com­mand had apprehended some kidnap­pers as well as those who specialised in trading with their children.

Among those apprehended was one Veronica Vanger who is based in the state and whose mode of opera­tion was to normally recruit pregnant young girls to eastern part of the country where they were taking care of until they delivered their babies and sold them away.

One of the victims, one Ngber­nkerger Doo was said to have through Veronica sold her new born baby for N100,000 but was later short changed and given only N14,000.00. Another victim, Doshima Adogo, a 16-year-old girl who gave birth to a baby girl while living with her aunt in Buruku local government of the state was also made to part with her baby to a strang­er from Enugu but got N20,000.00 out of the N220,000.00 said to have been paid to buy the baby.

In her own story the buyer, one Onye Ekwueme said that it was her friend who had married for 20 years but had no child that contracted her to get a baby boy for her.

Ekwueme told newsmen that she contacted her son-in-law living in Benue and negotiated for the baby to be sold to her at N300,000.00 after Doshima’s aunt had agreed to help them get a baby from her little sister who was then heavily pregnant.

Bubble however burst for them when Doshima who was lured to part with her baby on the excuse that the strangers who came from Enugu were going to help her take care of her baby girl after she was given N20,000.00 raised the alarm.

“My aunt gave me N20,000.00 and said that the strangers were from Enu­gu and would take good care of the baby for me. As they drove off, I cried to a neighbour and narrated what hap­pened to me. It was the man that re­ported to the police and arrested my aunt and I, but two days later, I saw the same stranger with my baby.”

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