Posted by By BOMA WEST on
Eight stolen children hidden in a red Golf car have been rescued by vigilant securitymen inside the Ojo campus of the Lagos State University (LASU).
Eight stolen children hidden in a red Golf car have been rescued by vigilant securitymen inside the Ojo campus of the Lagos State University (LASU).
Four of the children, who were kept in the boot of the car marked AH980FGE and four others, including a year-old baby hidden inside the car were rescued by private guards known as Campus Marshal at LASU.
Daily Sun investigations showed that the children were drugged and police have identified the 32-year-old man accused of kidnapping them as Patrick Odafe Odara.
Odara was said to have taken the children from the Ilufe area of Ojo and was heading towards Igando area where he hoped to meet prospective buyers.
It was gathered that Odara avoided the Ojo Badagry Road and diverted to LASU in a bid to link to Igando Road to avoid possible arrest by the police.
A security officer at LASU told Daily Sun that Odara ran out of luck when he sped off the first gate without collecting a tag, adding that this sparked suspicion as the security men at the first gate alerted other securitymen at the second gate.
He said, 'when Odara came to the gate, I stopped him and I saw four children in the car. I requested to know where he was taking them, and he answered that he was taking them to a photographer but my instinct directed me to tell him to open his boot. He refused.
'He started pleading with me that nothing was in his boot. But I insisted that he must open it. I contacted other people around and they forced him to open the boot. Lo and behold, four other children were sweating profusely, looking very weak."
Another eye witness, Taye Akeju told Daily Sun that when the man was arrested, a mob wanted to lynch him but good spirited students refused, so that the truth could finally be ascertained.
He said, 'the securitymen alerted the police at Ojo division and soldiers later showed up but the students refused to hand over the suspect. So the Student Union Government brought out the suspected kidnapper with the children, six girls and two boys and took them to the station."
Akeju added that a man, Francis Aigbodon claimed that two of the kids were his, but the students refused to give the children to him until after police investigations.
One of the female victims who spoke with Daily Sun said 'uncle gave us biscuit and after eating the biscuit, we didn't know what happened until now. Please where are we, are we dead?"
Another two year-old victim who gave her name as Blessing was busy crying, requesting for her mother.
At Ojo police station, a senior officer said the children and suspect have been handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department as the Student Union Government led by the president, idetified simply as Omisore warned that they would monitor the case to a logical conclusion.