How My 3-Month-Old Baby Was Stolen Some Metres Away From Abuja Police Station — Distraught Mother

A 23-year-old Nigerian mother of three, Fatimah Kabiru, has narrated how a yet-to-be-identified young man stole her 3-month-old baby girl from her first daughter who was playing with her in their compound, according to SaharaReporters.

The incident occurred on Monday, November 8, 2021, around 10:00 am in Dakwa community near Dei-Dei under Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

SaharaReporters gathered that Fatimah who has yet to come to terms with the shocking and devastating incident had asked her 5-year-old daughter, Mariam to be playing with the baby in the compound. 

The baby was said to be crying while Fatimah was washing clothes inside.

Mariam was said to have succeeded in engaging and pacifying her sister, Fatimah, who is her mummy's namesake. 

The distraught mother, who spoke to SaharaReporters in Hausa through an interpreter, said Mariam later came to inform her that a man had taken the baby away after luring her with the promise that he would buy her 'bobo juice' if she would follow him.

She said the man snatched the baby from her alongside a piece of cloth used as the wrapper and asked her to wait inside an uncompleted building to enable him to buy the juice but eventually fled in the process with the baby.

She said it was at this point she raised an alarm and rushed to the said uncompleted building to catch the 'strange man' who had stolen her baby. 

However, she soon realised the assailant had escaped.

It was also gathered that efforts by her neighbours and passersby to find the man shortly after the baby was taken were unsuccessful.

The traumatised mother of three in company with a neighbour called Ado formally reported the matter at Dakwa Police Station, located a few meters away from the scene of the incident but nothing positive came out of it.

It was learnt that Fatimah left the police station in anger and left her neighbour behind following the barrage of questions asked by the police officers on duty.

She said, "When we get to the station, they were asking us all manner of questions and they told us that we should come back and report if the baby was not found after 48 hours."

Investigation revealed that the police have not visited the scene of the incident or the parents of the baby whose house is just a stone's throw away from the station.

When SaharaReporters visited the police station for reaction to the matter, the head of the station who identified herself as Roseline said they had referred the parents of the baby to Zuba Police Station, which will, in turn, activate and direct investigation into the matter. 

The father of the baby, Kabiru Musa, a staff member of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), was away in Imo State for training when the incident occurred. 

He has, however, been briefed. 

The young couple were said to have got married six years ago.

Some of the residents who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there have been similar cases in the area but blamed the parents for negligence and poor parental care.

A resident said, "This is not the first time this thing will happen in this area. It has happened to Mallam Suraju Dduda when they took his son. But parents are to be blamed because they allow their children to be roaming about the streets. 

"They don't take care of their children in this community. They expose them to dangers and nobody cares.

"I have personally made a complaint to Sarkin Dakwa about this ugly trend and he promised to address it but as you can see, the story is the same."

When SaharaReporters visited the Emir of Dakwa, Alhassan Musa Babachukuri in his palace for reaction, he described the incident as unfortunate and barbaric. 

He called on the government to give more power to traditional rulers to enable them to curb security challenges in their community. 

He said the community has intensified prayers to change the mind of the person who stole the baby so that they can return her.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach the Spokesperson for FCT Police Command, DSP Adeh Josephine were unsuccessful as her mobile line was not available.

Dakwa is a community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It is bordered by Zuba and Dei-Dei communities in the FCT and Zuma in the Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State.