Wole adedeji, Ilorin
The biblical story of a sleeping mother rolling over and killing her child was practically replicated in Ilorin, Kwara State capital recently. The only difference in the bizarre story, however, is that unlike the biblical story, while the Ilorin woman slept at night, a ritualist stole her Nursery two baby.
Thankfully, the small girl’s sharpness was her saving grace, as she narrowly escaped being killed by a yet to be identified ritualist, in the early hours of Thursday last week.
The incident happened at Tanke Area not too far away from the dreaded Police ‘F’ Division in the state capital.
Recounting her ordeal, little Feranmi Buko said she was sleeping by her mother when the person allegedly sneaked into their uncompleted apartment, woke her up and carried her shoulder high away from her deeply sleeping mother.
“He carried me and covered my mouth. When we got outside, he hit my head to the ground and brought out a knife to kill me. So, I shouted.”
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Her loud scream woke up her mother, Mrs. Mary Jumai Samaila Buko.
According to her, she heard her daughter’s scream at about 3.00am. When she woke up, she had thought that was trying to steal her domestic pets but surprisingly, she found out that it was actually her daughter that had not only been stolen from her but also about being slaughtered.
Her words: “I woke up about 3.00am when I heard a voice like someone wanted to kill an animal. I realised that my daughter was no longer by my side. I got to the corridor and saw the main door open and I saw my daughter, struggling with the man outside. I saw the man holding a long knife then I shouted for help. As I shouted, the man took to his heels and I pursued him with stones for a while and carried my daughter back into the house,” the woman, popularly known as Iya Alagbado at Tanke Oke Odo, Ilorin, said.
While investigating further, The Nigerian Xpress was told at the Tipper Garage, where Mrs. Buko hawks roasted corn by Malete Lane, near ECWA Church. However luck ran against the criminal suspect, a commercial motorcycle rider (okada) who boldly walked back to the house in the morning on an errand, thinking that no one would recognise. However, as soon as little Feranmi saw him, she shouted and pointed at him as the man, who came in the midnight to kidnap and attempted to kill her.
Sources added that the suspect made himself close to the family in such a way that neighbours thought he was a friend to Imole’s husband. According to the sources, the suspect visited the house three times on Wednesday on the pretence that he came to felicitate with Feranmi’s sister, who just been delivered of a baby.
Imole, Feranmi’’s sister in her account said the first time the suspect carried her on his bike, as a customer was when she was conveyed home during her pregnancy. According to her, she was not feeling fine that day and to show that he was a nice man, the suspect stood by her at the roadside until she felt better and strong enough to walk home.
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She further explained: “The okada rider saw me and asked, ‘so, you the little girl of those days had grown so tall and now pregnant?’ He then conveyed me home and has been trying to come closer though I never noticed his sinister intention.”
Other neighbours, who also spoke with this reporter said they had earlier arranged that people should be made to come forward, in a mock parade but the girl was asked to identify who kidnapped her, she was persistently pointing at the Okada rider. Consequently, the suspect was taken to the Police ‘F’ Division Police Station in Tanke.
When contacted the Kwara State Command Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Okaanmi, was yet to be briefed about the incident as at the time of filing this report.
Cases of kidnapping had become seasonal in the state particularly in the capital apart from other violent crimes like armed robbery, cultist attacks and open ritual killing. Killings related to cultism are known to be rampart in the concentrated areas where students live off-campus. In some cases, the bodies of victims are reportedly severed with vital parts missing at the time such bodies were discovered.
