Couple pleads with female abductor:‘ Please bring our baby back’
Blessing Nnena Udeze, who stays at Utako Village with a woman named Madam Chugo, came to know Theresa (the baby’s aunt) whenever she came to see a male friend, Hakeem Adewunmi, a bus driver who stays in the same compound as the Mikes. Blessing always came to see Hakeem and sometimes stayed with Theresa whenever […]
Blessing Nnena Udeze, who stays at Utako Village with a woman named Madam Chugo, came to know Theresa (the baby’s aunt) whenever she came to see a male friend, Hakeem Adewunmi, a bus driver who stays in the same compound as the Mikes.
Blessing always came to see Hakeem and sometimes stayed with Theresa whenever her boyfriend was not around and got friendly with the family, frequently asking questions about the kind of food the baby was fed. She would even take the baby to her boyfriend’s room. Then on April 23, while Theresa was at her part-time teaching job, she got a call from Blessing asking her about her whereabouts and that she was in the compound, all by herself. Theresa told her that she was at work, so Blessing met her there. “When she came she told me that we should go for lunch and I told her that I had a class, she suggested that we buy drinks. As we were taking the drinks, she collected the baby from me and put him on her back saying that since she was around, she could help with him. After some time, she said they were going for a stroll around the school premises and after about thirty minutes, she came back and said that the weather was hot and the baby was uncomfortable, so she would take him home for a bath. I did not suspect anything but told her not to keep long. After about an hour of waiting and she did not return, I decided to call her but her phone was not going through. After 20 minutes, she called with another number saying that she was just coming back from the market because since I was busy, she decided to rush to the market. I felt a little relief but I waited in vain until about 2.30pm. I kept calling her number and the other one but they were both not going through. That was when it dawned on me that something was amiss and I decided to call my sister, the mother of the baby.”
The mother of the baby, Cecilia said: “When she called me and told me what had happened, I could not believe my ears but rushed home from work. We called Hakeem, her boyfriend and he said that he really knew nothing about her, that all he knew was that she stays with a woman in Utako Village. When we got to Utako, the woman said that she came back and packed her things and left, saying that she was travelling to the village.” Cecilia broke down in tears at this point.
After it became clear that the baby has been stolen, the police in Utako were informed but they were referred to Karimo Police Station. From there the cops traced the account number which Blessing left behind to an Oceanic Bank account which she opened last year in Bayelsa State and three different addresses in Port-Harcourt, Bayelsa and Abia States were traced to the account. The police and the baby’s father, Mike, went to these states to trace the addresses and found that none of them exist. It was also noticed that since she opened it, she had never withdrawn any money but instead huge amounts were regularly deposited into it.
Mike Iriko, the baby’s father, in tears, said: “We have nothing to say to Blessing but to plead with her that she should return our baby. I am on my knees begging, that boy is all I have got in this world. Please do not hurt him, let him grow with the love and care of his parents. That is the best you can do for him, for us and also yourself.” He was joined by his wife: “As a woman, this baby is the joy of my marriage and my home. I do not know where to start to plead with you, Blessing, to please, for the love of God, return my baby to me. I never treated you as an outsider. May Almighty God touch your heart, to return this baby to us.” Tears continued to flow down the cheeks of the Mikes, as the silence in the room remained unbroken.