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From Abubakar Yakubu, Abuja
In the past, Angwandodo, a community at Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was known for its peaceful nature, where children walked freely outside their houses.
•The main road leading to Angwandodo
But these days, fear and caution appear to be the catchwords in most households, especially after the disappearance of 28 children in the community and 22 more in the surrounding communities such as Bako, Dabi, Dagri and Angwan Zara.
Talatu Francis, a middle-aged mother and petty trader, was to attend a neighbour’s wedding on December 8, 2023 and decided to carry her three-year-old son, Emmanuel, on her back.
She said one of her friends, Esther, who lives near the wedding venue, noticed that she was struggling with the weight of the boy and decided to remove her sleeping child from her back and place him on a bed in her apartment.
•Madam Success Hotel at Angwandodo destroyed by a mob after her arrest.
“I told her to remove him from the bed so that he will not wet it but she laughed over it,” Talatu said.
She narrated further that after a while, she heard them call the Magrib prayers and she told Esther she was going home to give her eldest son the key to their apartment.
“As I got home I saw my son with my brother-in-law and learnt they were also going to the wedding ceremony, so we went back together,” she stated. Talatu said as they reached the wedding venue, her friend, Esther, approached her to find out if she had taken Emmanuel from the bed.
“I told her no and we started searching for him all over the place without any result,” she stressed.
She said they rushed immediately to the office of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) to report the incident and some vigilantes followed them to comb the wedding venue but the boy was not found.
According to her, the following day, they went to the Gwagwalada Police Division to lodge a report of the missing child, and a policeman accused my friend and me of selling the child.
“He took our statements before locking us in a cell. I was locked up from 2pm until 5pm and later released to go and find the child and report back the following Monday. I also learnt that my friend was released after her mother intervened and was asked to come on Monday as well.
“When we both arrived on Monday, the policeman again put us under arrest and was preparing a First Information Report to charge us to court,” she said.
She said it took the intervention of the traditional ruler of the community before she was again released.
“I started receiving insults from people who accused me of selling my child and using the money from the sales to expand my business but I kept searching and praying to God with the assistance of my pastor, for my child to return,” she said.
She said God answered her prayers during the first week of January, when an influential women leader in the community, known as Madam Success, was arrested in a vehicle at Zuba with two children.
Our reporter learnt from some residents that the children were crying in the vehicle and a passenger became curious because they were communicating in Hausa language while the woman is from the Eastern part of the country. They said the passenger then alerted policemen at a checkpoint at Zuba, who then arrested her and placed the children under their care.
Talatu said after the arrest, women whose children were missing learnt that Madam Success had hired a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and was boasting that ‘money stops nonsense’.
On their part, the affected families mobilised in large numbers and hired several 18-seater buses to storm the headquarters of the Human Rights Commission headquarters, NATIP and the FCT Police Command to protest as well as lay their complaint.
“At the police command, an officer gave me a paper to write my statement and asked me to go and return with my friend the next day, which I did.
“My friend was detained for a week at FCT Police Command and during her detention, Madam Success confessed that she sold some of the children she stole to someone at Tunga Maji. Then the female investigating police officer then provided a vehicle and took some policemen to trace the person, and they came back with Emmanuel and one other boy,” she stated.
She said as Emmanuel was being led by the policewoman inside the office, he sighted her friend Esther and broke loose from the officer and ran and embraced her friend.
“It was then the policewoman asked Esther how she knew the boy and she said the boy was the reason she was under arrest. The police officer then contacted me and asked me to come with my husband the next day. We got to the command very early in the morning but it was not until about 6pm that our child was reunited with us,” she added.
According to Talatu, her child looked healthy but his hair was bushy.
“I thanked God for rescuing him and saving me from insults,” she said. The Resident Pastor of ECWA Goodnews Bassa at Agwandodo, Rev. (Dr) Amali S. Samuel, decried the incidents of child theft in the area. He said the first one happened at Bako in Kwali Area Council of the FCT and then spread to Angwandodo.
He, however, said once Talatu’s case was reported, the church went into prayers and God revealed to him that the child would return, adding that a few weeks later he heard the news of Madam Success’ arrest with two children.
“I learnt that the woman confessed further to the police and revealed where some of the children she sold were and that was how Emmanuel was found,” he said.
He said the community learnt that the same woman and her gang had a hand in the child abduction case at Bako, adding that the police had also arrested some of her gang members.
Talatu and another parent who resides at Tipper Garage at Angwandodo appear to be very lucky for recovering their sons. But the case is different for some other parents who have tried to get their children back without success and decided to file a complaint at Berekette Family Television and Radio reality programme aired on the Human Rights Radio and Television.
Our reporter learnt that Madam Success came into the community as a hair braider and soon surprisingly became very wealthy, owning a hotel, shops to let and an orphanage.
“She claimed to have two children, Uche, a 13-year-old, and Amanda, and both of them were used to lure children for her. Uche confessed that he lured a lot of children in Angwandodo for Madam Success,” the resident said, adding that the children she claimed to be her own were abducted from Ebonyi State.
When the news of the arrest of Madam Success hit the community, some residents told Saturday Sun that a mob destroyed her hotel and other buildings in the community.
Some mothers whose children were missing believed that Madam Success had a hand in their disappearance following her son’s confession.
A parent whose three-year-old son went missing early this month accused one of his neighbours of being behind the abduction. The man said he had on several occasion warned his neighbour to stop giving his children sweets and biscuits.
“On the day my son got missing, his brother said he told him he was going to the neighbour’s house to collect sweets,” the father narrated.
However, when he reported the matter to the police, he was told that the statement of his underage son was not sufficient enough to warrant an arrest.
Another woman lamented that her three children were missing, while others complained of losing two or one.
Saturday Sun learnt that in several cases, people who pretend to be couples rented apartments near their victims’ homes and picked interest in the children who live inside, before striking when their parents were not around.
The case of Mama Divine was quite touching. She said in December 2016, she left then three-year-old Divine at home and took his brother to the clinic for immunisation. But she said by the time she returned home at 10am, she did not see Divine.
“After three years I saw my son’s photo on social media as someone found in Port Harcourt. I rushed to the police station over there to find out that the boy was indeed my child but his name had become Divine Kelechi.
Another woman, who appeared wealthy also came to lay claim to Divine and the police asked me to go and get money to conduct a DNA test for my son. And when they saw I didn’t have such money, they allowed the other woman go with the child,” she lamented.
The Founder of Brekette Family then placed a phone call on air to the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Tunji Disu, who asked the woman to see him on Thursday, so that he could investigate the issue.
Reacting to the arrest of Madam Success, Force Public Relations Officer, Assistant Commissioner Olumuyiwa Adejobi, refuted the rumours being spread that the police might soon release Madam Success. He reassured the public during the phone-in programme that the police will investigate the matter diligently and prosecute her.
Also reacting, the commander of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in the area, Musa A. Ahmadu, said several cases of missing children were reported in their office, adding that the cases were handed over to the police.
