A 28-year-old man identified as Abiodun Joseph has been arrested in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital for allegedly kidnapping two children.
The arrest was carried out by policemen from Ogun State, where the kids – Tobiloba Aleshiloye, 12, and eight-year-old Yussuf Kudus – were reported missing.
Joseph, who is said to be a resident of Canaanland, Sango Ota, in the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, allegedly abducted the two children on September 15, 2017.
He was said to have taken them to an unknown place, from where he started demanding a ransom of N150,000 per child from their parents.
Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the parents of the abducted children reported the case at the Agbara division and detectives were detailed to be on the trail of the kidnapper.
“Technical investigation”, Oyeyemi said, was conducted on the suspect’s whereabouts and the hideout was located in a hotel in the Ojoo area of Ibadan.
He said detectives stormed the location, arrested the suspect and rescued the victims unhurt.
“The two children have been reunited with their parents,” Oyeyemi added.
Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the anti-kidnapping/cultism unit of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
Mr Iliyasu appealed to members of the public to take the security of their children seriously in order not to make them victims of kidnappers.
