Man, girlfriend in police net for child kidnapping
A 25-year-old man and his girlfriend, Doris Ternenge have been arrested by the Police in Benue State in connection with the kidnap of a minor who was rescued from their custody. State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, paraded the suspects alongside a nursing mother said to be mentioned in the commission of the alleged crime […]
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A 25-year-old man and his girlfriend, Doris Ternenge have been arrested by the Police in Benue State in connection with the kidnap of a minor who was rescued from their custody.
State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, paraded the suspects alongside a nursing mother said to be mentioned in the commission of the alleged crime at the police headquarters in Makurdi.
Makama said that 22-year-old Ternenge and her boyfriend, Timbee Shija were intercepted with a two years old boy known as Keghter Julius who was earlier reported missing at the ‘E’ Police Division by his father.
But, Ternenge in an interview with Daily Trust, claimed that she had visited her boyfriend at Kilometre 4, a Makurdi suburb and found the said child in his possession and upon enquiry, she was told that his elder sister went on an errand for her man.
"The child was crying so my boyfriend said I should carry the baby and escort him to the road. He promised to give me N20, 000 but while we were going, we were intercepted and arrested. I was later told that the child was stolen," Miss Ternenge said.
The nursing mother, Mrs Benjamin who is alleged to be an accomplice
On his part, the lover boy, Shija who admitted to have been arrested before over the stealing of another two years old child but was let of the hook by a court corroborated the narration by his girlfriend, adding that he only wanted to return the child to his parents since the elder sister whom he sent on an errand was no longer anywhere to be found.
Meanwhile, the nursing mother, Mrs. Ada Benjamin, resident in North
Bank area of Makurdi was implicated in the matter by Shija who alleged that the woman was known to his syndicate.
Mrs Benjamin however denied that she knew the suspects or played any role at all in the kidnapping of the rescued child or of other children, stressing that she was in her house when Shija came and threatened her to give him some money.
"I reported the matter to my husband on telephone and he told me to quickly go to the nearest police station to report the threat. I was on my way to the police when I called my laŵyer who directed me to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID). It was when I got here (police headquarter) that I met Shija and his girlfriend.
"Ask them, they don’t know me and I don’t know them. The police had asked me to go back home that day after taking my statement because I was nursing a child and to return the next day. I came back and they grouped me along with them. I’m a mother of six children, how can I steal another person’s child?" Benjamin asked.
But, Shija insisted that he knows the woman and had been going to her house after she was introduced to him by one Daddy Scooper, an ex-convict for alleged several kidnapping crimes.
The police commissioner however said the suspects have been charged to court to face the full wrath of the law.