Police crack child stealing syndicate in Ogun

…Arrest husband, wife, rescue 3 stolen children

By Vera Wisdom-Bassey

Detectives attached to the Mowe Division, Ogun State Police Command, led by the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Afeniforo Folake, have arrested a husband and wife (Ugochukwu Mathew and Oluwarankami Kehinde Ugochukwu, respectively) for their involvement in child stealing.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi, disclosed that the detectives rescued three stolen children in the Mowe area of Ogun State, while brief journalists.

The arrest followed a complaint lodged at Mowe Division by a resident of Omo Onile, Mowe, who reported that while she was receiving medical attention at a clinic in Mowe, one of the suspects, Oluwarankami Kehinde Ugochukwu, while visiting under the guise of checking on her condition, deceitfully took her four-month-old baby on the pretext of assisting with care while the mother rested and thereafter absconded with the child.

Upon receipt of the report, detectives of the Division were immediately mobilised.  Motor parks and strategic locations within the area were placed under surveillance while intelligence-led operation was intensified.

Acting on credible intelligence, detectives tracked the suspects to their hideout at Kekere Ekun area of Mowe, where the stolen child was rescued alongside two other children found in their possession. The husband and wife suspects were promptly arrested and taken into custody.

Preliminary investigation revealed that one of the children found with the suspects had earlier been declared missing in a 2024 child stealing case, in which the child was taken from a hairdressing salon using the same deceptive methods of pretending to offer assistance.

The biological parents of two of the rescued children have been contacted and those contacted have positively identified their wards.

The case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Eleweran), for further investigation.