The Taraba State Police Command has arrested two women accused of abducting three young girls in Jalingo and attempting to transport them to Adamawa State.
The suspects, reportedly from one of the South-Eastern states, were arrested at a filling station while travelling in a commercial vehicle with the three children.
According to reports, the driver became suspicious after noticing that the girls did not appear to be related to the women. He alerted members of his transport union, who subsequently contacted the police, leading to the arrest of the suspects.
The two women, both reportedly single, had allegedly rented a room in the same compound where the girls’ parents lived about two weeks before the incident.
The incident reportedly occurred on Thursday morning when the women allegedly deceived the girls’ mothers by asking them to allow the children to accompany them to the market.
Instead, they reportedly took the girls to a motor park in Jalingo, where they hired a vehicle to convey them to Adamawa State.
At the police station, the suspects allegedly admitted taking the girls from the compound after deceiving their mothers.
The children, identified as Ummul Shuaibu, Ummul Baba Gasal and Amina Abubakar, are between five and six years old.
Abubakar Kwalli, the father of one of the girls, told Daily Trust that he and the fathers of the other two children were invited to the Taraba State Police Command headquarters.
“We were surprised to see our children at the police headquarters. We were asked to identify them, which we did, but we were directed to bring our wives to further identify the children before they would be released to us,” he said.
Kwalli added that when the girls saw their mothers, they each ran towards them in tears.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Taraba State Command, ASP Victor Mshelizah, confirmed the incident and the arrest of the two women.
He said investigations were ongoing and that further details would be released upon the conclusion of the investigation.
