Read How A Family’s Only Child Was Abducted In Lagos

A two-year-old boy named Samuel Akpuafor (Jnr) has been abducted in Okokomaiko, Lagos, reports The Nation.

The toddler, according to sources, was the only child of his parents and was born 10 years after his parents got married. His abduction from his home in May has left his parents devastated.

His father, Samuel Akpuafor, told The Nation that the abduction of his only child has changed his world completely.

He said, “That boy is my everything; My mother, my father, everything. It is as if my heart was divided into two and one killed. I have not been able to concentrate. I have not been able to think straight. I just cannot understand how that was possible. It was around 12 pm on May 19, when I got a call that they were looking for my son. They had just returned from Thursday prayers and my housemaid gave him potato to eat. He was eating the potato outside and the housemaid was with him.

The agitated father continued, “She said a woman came into the compound, that she was pressed and she directed her to the restroom. After easing herself, she said the woman came back and told her she was waiting for someone. Being a small girl, she did not suspect anything. She left the woman and then went inside to do something while my son was still eating outside. But when she came out, she only saw the plate of potato without my son and the woman was gone as well.

“They started looking for him and did not see him. That was how they called me. Since that time, no one knew how the woman took him away and no one saw him. I have gone to all the police stations in this area with his picture. I have also gone to the radio room but we have not seen him yet.

He further said, “I have been devastated since then. I have just been managing to survive. My wife too has been moving from church to church since she returned from the east. We are begging anyone with our son to bring him back. He’s the only child we have.”

The toddler’s abduction is one of the 20 cases of abduction that have occurred in the neighbourhood within the last three months, and the children kidnapped are aged between two and five years, sources say. Residents have, thus, called out to the government for help in curbing the increasing rate of kidnapping.

A resident, who gave his name as Chinedu, said, “Children disappear here almost daily. The thing is disturbing. Some while they are going to or returning from school; others while playing and some are kidnapped even in their houses. People almost killed a woman who was caught during Sallah holiday. At first she confessed to the crime and people brought pictures of their missing children and were showing her whether she could identify them. She was taken to the Baale’s palace so that the angry crowd won’t kill her and the Baale called the police. But when the police came, the woman started acting as though she was insane. That was how parents were asked to bring N1,000 each so that a test can be conducted to ascertain her mental situation. But till now, we have not heard anything.”