At least six women are at each other’s neck claiming to be the mother of a five-year-old boy, rescued by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT), from the hands of baby snatchers.
The matter has become so controversial that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has stepped into the matter. One of the interested mothers, doubting the authenticity of a DNA result presented by police investigating the matter, ran to the #EndSARS panel sitting in Abuja, crying foul.
The panel is made up of members of the NHRC. The DNA carried out by police to find out the true mother of the boy among the six ‘mothers,’ allegedly proved that a woman, who came to Abuja all the way from Enugu State, was the true relative of the boy. Investigators believe that the ‘mother,’ who ran to the #EndSARS panel crying, was making the case to drag. At the last sitting of the panel held on October 18, it was ordered that an independent DNA test be conducted with respect to the petition of the woman.
The #EndSARS panel stated that in view of the petition, the Investigation Police Officer (IPO) was ordered to make available the child on a date to be communicated in due course. According to the panel, this was to enable it to proceed timely to the diagnostic Centre for the collection of samples for the DNA examination.
A police source, which had been following the matter, said: “In 2019, one Thomas in Abuja, wrote a petition that a husband and wife moved into one of the apartments in the compound he lives in. A week later, the woman said that she wanted to buy something outside, and opted to take Thomas’s daughter along. Thomas allowed her and she disappeared with the child. When Thomas wrote a petition to the police, we visited the place and unraveled a telephone number, which belonged to the suspects. “We were able to arrest the fleeing ‘husband and wife’ in Asaba, Delta State.
We discovered that the couple had sold the child and had also rented another apartment at Asaba. “The couple was arrested and when it was time for the identification parade, Thomas identified them as his former neighbours, who ran away with his daughter.”
