A woman, Mrs. Okpara and her husband, Emeka Okpara, are frantically searching for their two daughters after an apprentice hairstylist, identified as Rose, disappeared with them at Ajegunle area of Lagos State. This came as a suspected female kidnapper has confessed to policemen in Lagos that she used to kidnap and sell kids for N50, 000 Mrs. Okpara said she went to the market when Rose disappeared with the girls. Rose abducted the girls, four days after she applied as an apprentice hairstylist at the salon, where Mrs. Okpara is the manager.
The apprentice, who resumed work at the salon on May 10, abducted the girls on May 14. Emeka said the two girls had accompanied their mother to the salon and were playing when Rose lured them outside and disappeared. When Rose was queried by some neighbours who sighted her with the girls, she lied that she was instructed by their mother to go and buy them food.
Emeka said: “Rose approached my wife on Tuesday last week at the salon. She said she wanted to learn hairdressing, but my wife told her that she was only a manager at the salon. The arrangement was that she should come back with her people to meet the owner so that they could agree on the terms of work and then sign the agreement.
“Rose said since the owner wasn’t around, that she would still like to begin tentative work so that she won’t be idle. My wife agreed and she worked from that Tuesday to Saturday. On that fateful Saturday, a customer came to the shop and my wife was attending to her. Later, my wife wanted to go to the market across the salon and so she left the customer, our daughters and Rose there.
“When she came back, she didn’t see either Rose or our girls. When she asked the neighbours, they told her that Rose went out with them to buy food.
“Since that Saturday, we haven’t seen or heard from Rose. We don’t know what else to do. We are devastated. We are pleading with her to please return our joy to us.”
The matter has been reported at the Ajeromi Police Station. A police source said that police were pursuing a lead that a notorious child-kidnapper, who was almost lynched at Ikorodu area of the state on Monday, might provide possible answers as to Rose’s whereabouts. Emeka urged wellmeaning Nigerians to provide useful information to the nearest police station or call 08129390600. Meanwhile, the suspected female kidnapper, whose name was not known at press time, was arrested at the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
She was described as a notorious female child kidnapper. The woman, believed to be in her 30s, was allegedly caught yesterday at Ajegunle where five children reportedly went missing last week.
The suspect was arrested in possession of a child that was declared missing in Ikorodu. A friend of the missing child’s mother told the police that she was shocked to see her friend’s missing child, with a total stranger.
She quickly put a call across to the mother and later raised the alarm. The suspected kidnapper would have been killed by irate youths in Ikorodu, but for the quick intervention of policemen. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmus, did not pick her calls for confirmation of the story at press time.
