Woman, 50, remanded for abducting 2 children

An Ogba chief magistrates’ court has remanded a middle-aged woman for allegedly abducting two children along Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba, Lagos. The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A.O. Adedayo, said the accused, Vera Henry, should be remanded till May 31, 2018, when the substantive case would be heard The 50-year-old woman was arrested penultimate Wednesday by policemen […]

An Ogba chief magistrates’ court has remanded a middle-aged woman for allegedly abducting two children along Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba, Lagos.

The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A.O. Adedayo, said the accused, Vera Henry, should be remanded till May 31, 2018, when the substantive case would be heard

The 50-year-old woman was arrested penultimate Wednesday by policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Sabo Division, for allegedly kidnapping two children aged nine and two.

The prosecutor, Inspector Raphael Donny, told the court that the accused, who noticed that she was being trailed by the police diverted with the children into St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba, Lagos where the police then alerted the church security over her suspicious conduct.

The prosecutor said that the accused allegedly abducted the children while they were on an errand.

He said the accused had confessed to the police that she abducted the two children to replace her missing daughter.

He said the church security men apprehended the accused on the orders of the DPO who subsequently took her to Sabo Police Division, Yaba for interrogation.

“During the interrogation, she confessed and told the police that the victims looked like her missing daughter as she was told by a diviner that her daughter was still alive but that her stature had reduced. 

“She explained that she decided to pick them as they might be her daughter that was reduced to that size as she was told by the diviner,” he added.

He said that information later got to the parents of the victims who then came to the police station where they identified their children.

They explained that the elder victim was sent on an errand and the younger followed him before they were kidnapped.

The accused person however pleaded not guilty to a two count charge of kidnap and action likely to cause a breach of peace. The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A. O. Adedayo, granted her bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum. 

She was remanded in prison custody pending when she will perfect her bail condition.