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Men From Hell Snatch 20 Children In Calabar

Published

10 years ago

April 12, 2014

With over 20 kids abducted in three months in Calabar, the
stories surrounding their disappearance are like tales from the
moon, but what is happening to kids between the ages of three
and six in the Cross River State capital, is far from tales; they
are real life incidents which are sending fear down the spine of
many parents.
Since February, men from hell have besieged the city, snatching
children suspected for ritual purposes or sale to barren women around
the city who allegedly pay triple digit amounts for the kids.
The Cross River State House of Assembly and the State Security
Adviser, Mr Rekpene Bassey, disturbed by the trend, raised the
alarm but this has not yielded any results. The police in the state are
yet to make arrest on the kidnapped children.
Describing the modus operandi of the abductors, Bassey said they
would position themselves in busy areas to watch out for parents who
park cars with children inside to abduct the kids. In other cases, the
thieves abduct children playing outside their residences. Others are
snatched while on errand or on the way to or from school. And in
some daring cases , the abductors snatch kids from parents while
pretending to offer them lift. The security adviser warned parents to
beware of child kidnappers and assured that security agencies had
been placed on the alert over the situation.
In one of the cases of child kidnapping which occurred on March 23, a
four-year-old, Nsew Udo Akpan, was snatched by abductors while
playing outside his home with his sister at Atekong Street, Biq Qua
Town.
Another 4-year-old-boy, Effiong Edet, was abducted in Ikot
Onim area of Calabar by hoodlums who raided the community in an
Audi car with the number plate covered.
The kidnappers struck at about 8:30 pm on Wednesday March 12
while the local vigilante members, majority of whom are said to be
football lovers, were preoccupied with watching the Arsenal match
against a Turkish football club in the European league.
The gang , on arrival at the community, reportedly drove to the Edets
compound where they sighted the boy (Effiong) and his friends playing.
The hoodlums first attempted to whisk away a six-year old boy,
identified as Joseph, who resisted his assailants by crying and biting
one of the kidnappers on the hand which caused them to abandon him
and then seizing Effiong who they bundled into their car and sped
off.
In February, a three-year, old-boy, Victor Offiong-Edem, was
taken away by unknown persons at the Assemblies of God Church,
located at 14, Nnamdi Azikiwe Street, Calabar South, during
Sunday service.
The father of the boy, Mr Offiong Edem, a staff of the College of
Health Technology, Calabar, told Sunday Vanguard that he took his
family to the church on the fateful day. After the offering, he went to
work and left Victor in the company of his wife, Angelica, and his
other son, Samuel, but was later informed that Victor had gone
missing.
“I work on Sundays. After giving my offering that day, I went to
work leaving behind my wife, Angelica, Samuel, my first son, and
Victor in the church only to be called later that Victor had gone
missing ”, Edem stated.
Mrs Angelica Offiong, mother of the missing boy, said after the close
of service, she had a short meeting with some church members. “After
the meeting, I went to pick my bag where I kept it not far away
from where I stood and, when I turned back, Victor was nowhere to
be found”, she narrated, tears rolling down her cheeks.
The kidnapper, according to her, must have been monitoring her and
the children and as soon as her eyes were turned away from the child,
he took away the boy.
Pastor Chukwu Ekeke, the head pastor of the Assemblies of God
Church, said this was the “first time an unfortunate incident like this
would take place in this church”. He added, “Prayers have been said
and I know God will certainly bring back that boy”.
In January, two siblings, Goodluck Charles Eyo and Promise
Charles Eyo, were playing in front of their residence, located at 98
Eserebom Street, Calabar South, while the mother, Uduak Charles,
went to the back of the house to take her bath. When she stepped out
of the bathroom, the two kids were gone. Their father, Charles Eyo, a
Keke Napep rider, said he had done “everything spiritual and physical
to get the children back to no avail”.
Also in January, a mother, Janet Ekpe, was walking along Bakoko
Road, at 8 Miles, Calabar, when two men in a car stopped by; she
thought they wanted to find out how to locate a place. “One of them
was in the car while the other came out. I thought he wanted to ask
me the number of a street but, before I knew it, he snatched Junior
out of my hand, ran into the car and they sped off”.
The lady, who said she was stunned to know what was happening,
said she came to her senses after the car had gone far. By the time she
started screaming, the thieves had disappeared.
A member of Cross River State House of Assembly, Ngim Okpo,
brought a motion of urgent public interest “on the increasing incidents
of child snatching where, in recent time which have seen cases of
kidnapping of innocent children by some unscrupulous elements for
alleged ritual purposes”, before the House.
He called on the House to pass a resolution to compel “relevant
government agencies to sensitize members of the public against falling
prey”.
The police, on their part, said efforts were on to unravel the
syndicates behind the stealing of children in Cross River State. Mr
Hogan Bassey, the spokesman for Cross River Police Command,
told Sunday Vanguard: “Police cannot be every where; members of
the public should volunteer information on those they suspect to be the
brain behind abduction in the state”.