A man who posed as a scavenger has been attacked before he was taken into custody by the South West Security Network, also known as Amotekun, in Ondo State for putting an eight-year-old girl into a sack with the intention of taking her away.
The development was confirmed by the State Commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, on Friday.
According to available information, the young man had hit the girl with a charm before he threw her into the sack with him.
The 30-year-old father of the girl, Bose James, said: “I was outside washing my clothes and my mother was inside watching television.
“My little daughter, who is eight years old, came out, that she wants to use the toilet and I asked her to go to the backyard to do that.
“Her cries attracted my mother’s attention who went to the backyard and confirmed that an ‘Aboki’ whom we mistook for a scavenger had kidnapped and hidden her inside a sack.
“It was my mother who shouted for help that made me rush there.
“And before I could get there, he had hit my mother with a heavy wood on her chest while she was struggling to rescue my child from him.
“The kidnapper continued to attack whoever attempted to rescue my child from him, but I held on to him, preventing him from escaping.
“It was an Okada man who saw the scene that alerted men of Amotekun Corps stationed at Maronu area who swiftly arrived, rescued the girl and arrested the suspected kidnapper.”
Adeleye said: “The alarm raised by the woman attracted the residents who attacked the suspect with different objects and attempted to burn him but they were stopped by Amotekun operatives who subsequently arrested the suspect.
“Upon interrogation, we discovered that he is actually a kidnapper and he confessed that he has been in the trade for a while.
“Investigation continues on his case before we would finally hand him over to the court.
“Luckily, the eight-year-old child is mentally okay, despite the degree of the injury she sustained from the firewood attack.
“She is equally responding to treatment from our health facility.
“All these scavengers, majority of them are armed robbers who are surveying your premises and come to attack you in the night, most of them are informants to kidnappers and armed robbers.
“So we are seriously discouraging the scavengers within our society and I want to appeal to members of the public to be more watchful and careful this time with their children.
“The long arm of the law has caught up with this one and we will make sure diligent prosecution is carried out to serve as a deterrent to others who are into the trade.
“Like we have been telling members of the public, we remain resolute and committed to the provision of adequate security of lives and property to residents in Ondo State.
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“Equally, we want to plead with them to always avail us with timely and quality information that we can act on and we are also reassuring them that the state is safe, economically viable and we assure investors to come into Ondo State and transact business without any fear of robbery attacks and kidnapping.
“Again, like we told you in November, that there was not going to be any robbery or kidnap incidents, and till date, all such attempts have been foiled by officers and men of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun Corps, and other security agencies through our joint patrol team, comprising of the Army, police, NSCDC, the DSS, the Correctional Centres.”
