Man abducts neighbour's 3-yr-old daughter, sells her for N20k

A middle aged man, Emmanuel Okpara, has been arrested by the police in Lagos State for allegedly kidnapping the three-year-old daughter of his neighbour, Godwin Onyeisi, and selling her for a paltry N20,000, The Nation reports.

It was gathered that Okpara abducted the child identified as Success on December 22, 2015, from the compound he lived with her father, a commercial motorcycle (Okada) operator, at Adebumoye Street, Coconut, Apapa area of the state.

Okpara, it was gathered, was even the one that showed much concern for the distraught father as he joined him and his family to search for the missing girl and could have gotten away if not for some people who had seen him with the missing toddler and raised suspicions in the minds of the girl's parents at about the time her disappearance was reported.

Based on the suspicion, Onyeisi reported the matter to the police and Okpara was arrested and transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, where he allegedly confessed that he kidnapped the child and sold her for N20,000, but could not tell where the buyer is or where he lives.

Onyeisi, said he could not believe that his neighbour could be the cause of his family's sadness throughout the yuletide period.

“The worst part is that he (Okpara) followed me to all the places I went to in search of my daughter, with the same clothe he wore when he kidnapped her.

He followed me on my motorcycle to all the palaces of the Baales, all the streets and all the police stations we visited, until people who saw him with her about the time she went missing, told us and the police that he was the kidnapper.

For two days, we went round in search of my daughter and my neighbour was with me all through the period. He was wearing the same red T-shirt that people saw him with while he took my daughter away. But he was following me as if he did not know anything about her disappearance.

From December 23, we started hearing information that he was seen with my daughter, but I did not believe it because Success is very close to him. I have been very good to his family; I even connected my generator to his house to give them light.

Whenever my daughter is given food, she will take it to eat with him. Once we bath her, she will take her clothe to him to wear for her. She usually slept in their house, so I did not want to believe that he was behind her disappearance.

But three women later came to our house; among the three was a woman he bought bottled water from while he was with my daughter. So, the woman now said he saw him with my daughter and that after drinking from the water, he gave my daughter to drink and they left.

I still did not believe what they were saying. I told them to stop lying against him until my wife got angry and went and reported to the police that I was also a suspect. That was how I was arrested with him on December 25 and we slept at the station.

He was still denying it, until the women and all those who saw him with my daughter came to the police station and identified him.

They even described the clothe he was wearing, which happened to be the same clothe he wore while he was following me about. That was how the police detained him.

After some days, he confessed that he was the one who took her and that he sold her for N20,000 through somebody else to a man who lives in Okota.

He said he cannot remember the man and the middle man who took the baby to the buyer usually stayed at a woman’s house here in Coconut.

Okpara should let me know if he has killed my daughter. If my baby is still alive, he should say where she is. How can a man like that kidnap a little girl and since then he doesn’t want to say where she is? Police need to put pressure on him to say where my baby is.

I have spent all my savings on the investigation of this matter. I have been giving the police money so that the case is not slowed down. Now I don’t even have money to pay for the school fees of my other children,” Onyeisi lamented.

A police source say they have launched a manhunt for the buyer and the prophet he allegedly gave the child to.

“The police are very close to getting them. We will hunt them down soonest. Both the man who bought the girl and the one who took her to the buyer are being hunted, we are very close to getting them and will get them.”