The police have picked up a child that was abandoned in the bush by some faceless abductors for unknown reasons.
Opeyemi Sotirin
A 10-year-old pupil, Opeyemi Sotirin, has escaped from her abductors, after she was seized on Tuesday at her school in the Ibafo, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The Punch learnt that the primary three pupil of Victory Edge Nursery and Primary School, was found loitering on the long bridge of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, after trekking kilometres from the bush where she was abandoned.
She was not injured by her captors. She was said to have been picked up by a Quick Response Squad patrol team, led by one Inspector
Ola Yahaya, who then took her to the Warewa Police Post.
When asked what happened to her, the victim explained that she had closed from school and was waiting for her younger brother who was having an extramoral when two men accosted her.
She claimed that the men forced her into a parked vehicle and threatened to kill her if she raised the alarm. She said:
“After I closed from school at 2pm, I went to wait for my younger brother whose school is opposite mine. As I was waiting for him, two men came and then forced me into a black jeep. They threatened that if I shouted, they would kill me.
"They drove me far into the bush and I did not know where they were taking me to. After driving very far, they stopped. They looked at each other and suddenly asked me to get down and lie face down.
"Then they drove off. I did not know where I was, but when I saw footpath on the road, I decided to take it. I trekked till I got to the express.”
A Punch worker, Mrs. Oge Njoku, said she was driving on the expressway around 6.30pm when she observed the 10-year-old stranded on the long bridge. She turned back to talk to the child as it was obvious she needed help and before she reached the child, the victim was already being attended to by the police. According to the victim, she was living in Abeokuta before she moved to Ibafo where she is schooling.
A member of the QRS team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told a correspondent that Sotirin was taken to the Warewa Police Post, so she could be identified and be reunited with her parents.