A bricklayer, one of the suspects (a couple and a 62-year-old grandmother, Sabira Izuorah), arrested over the abduction of children has revealed that he receives N500,000 per child.
They were arrested by operatives of Ondo State Police Command for alleged theft of 14 children, including four babies.
While the four stolen children are between one week and two months old, the 10 other children are between two and seven years old.
It was learnt that the 62 year old grandmother operates an illegal orphanage where stolen children are kept until they are sold.
The three member-syndicate including the couple, Isiaka and Abosede Lukman, were arrested after a case of a missing child was reported in Akure, the state capital.
In an interview, the grandmother, claimed to be a retired Director from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Anambra State, admitted to having received the children from the couple.
Izuorah said, “I have a registered orphanage. I took care of children. The name of my orphanage is Clarion Children’s Care and Reforms Initiatives. It started full operation in 2020.
“Lukman and his wife brought a total of 11 children to me. I do not pay them. It is the adopting parents who pay them. The adopting parents do not pay me. They give us food items and supplies.
“I stopped Lukman and his wife from bringing children for me in November 2024. All the children were no longer with me. But I went to recover them from their adopting parents. It did not start with me, and it will not end with me.”
Also speaking, Lukman who claimed to be a bricklayer, confessed to have been involved in the crime since 2023. He alleged that the grandmother introduced him and his wife to the illicit trade when he left Ondo State to work in Anambra.
According to him, Izuorah was paying him N500,000 per child, which she sold to her buyers for N1 million and above.
He said he has been stealing children since 2023.
“I have given a total of 11 children to Izuorah. The method my wife and I use to steal the children is, when we see any children roaming about, we call them and say we will buy soft drinks and biscuits for them.
“After telling them that, they will follow us. After walking for about 10 minutes, we will take bike (a commercial motor cycle) to the park where we will board a vehicle to Anambra State to give Izuorah the children.
“She normally gives us N500, 000 for each child that we bring to her. I met Izuorah when we went to Anambra to work. I’m a bricklayer. She was the one who introduced me to the business after training me. Since then, I have been giving her children.
“I don’t know anything about the two-month-old and four-month-old babies. She is the one who can say where she got them from. I only operate in Akure, Ondo State, and Ilesa, Osun State.”
Giving detail of their arrest, the state police commissioner, Wilfred Afolabi said: “A complainant reported that a man, Samuel Adejobi (real name Lukman Isiaka) and a woman, Ewatomi (Abosede Olanipekun), came to her shop to eat.
“While playing with the complainant’s child, Abosede deceived her by claiming she wanted to buy biscuits for the baby.
“Meanwhile, Lukman distracted the complainant by engaging her in a personal conversation and requested she followed her to Olukayode plaza in the market to get a mobile phone.
“On getting to the market area, he abandoned her and left. When the complainant returned to the shop, she discovered that her child was missing, with no trace of Abosede, the supposed sister of the man she followed to the market.
“Thus, a report was made at the Division.
“During interrogation, the suspects admitted to abducting the child and other children from Ondo and Osun states and selling them to Sabira Izuorah, aged 62 years, in Ihiala, Anambra State, at the rate of N1 million per child.”
The police commissioner stated that some children are currently on the missing list, while efforts are ongoing to locate and rescue them.
