The operatives of the Nigerian Police in Lagos are currently searching for a fraud suspect who reportedly abducted a boy and used him in exchange for food materials.
According to information made available to Inside Sources the middle-aged man criminal suspect abducted a 10-year-old boy, who was on an errand for his mother, and exchanged him for three bags of rice in the Ijegun area of Lagos.
The suspect who is nowhere to be found as at the time of filling this report reportedly accosted the victim who was on an errand for his mother over the weekend at Prince Bus Stop along Isheri Oshun in Lagos state.
Report revealed that the suspect introduced himself to the innocent boy as a relative of his family and then went on to convince the boy who followed him to the shop where he was sent to buy a bottle of groundnut oil and thereafter, took him to a shop where he collected three bags of rice.
Debora, the sales girl at the shop where the suspect carried out the act was convinced that he was going to get the money which was valued at N48,000, while his brother remained with her.
Explaining the incident, Debora said “When the man came to the shop with the boy, he asked how much a bag of rice was. I told him it was N16,000 and he left with the boy, saying he was going to tell the woman that sent them.
Moments later, he came back and said that he needed two bags. Again, he called the purported person that sent them on phone and suggested that they should add one more bag.
After the call, he told me to help him get a tricycle that would convey the three bags of rice to Fire Junction, where he claimed the owner was. He said the boy will remain with me while he went to get the money.
After waiting for close to one hour without seeing him, I told the boy to take me to his mum’s shop at the said Fire Junction. But he said that his mother did not own a shop there and that the stranger only met him on the road and brought him to the shop.
It was at that point that I knew I had been robbed. I alerted my neighbor, who said that the stranger must have used the boy as exchange for the bags of rice.”
The mother after a long wait for his son set out in search of him but was informed is at Isheri Osun police station in company of the owner of the shop and the sales girl.
The boy during interrogation said “After returning from the shop, the stranger asked if I knew where they sell bags of rice. I told him they were selling close to our house. But he said he did not want to buy there that I should follow him to buy elsewhere.
I followed him because he introduced himself as my cousin. He collected the money I had with me to pay for the fare and told me to wait at the shop, that he would come and take me back home after dropping the bags of rice.”
The Police, however, released him to his parents same day with a directive to report back to the station yesterday, where a meeting between the boy’s parents and owner of the shop who insisted on getting the money for the bags of rice.
