CRIME Man, girlfriend in police custody for child kidnapping
A25-year-old man, Timbee Shija, and his girlfriend, Doris Ternenge, 22, have been arrested by the police in Benue State in connection with the kidnap of a minor who was rescued from their custody.
The Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, while parading the suspects said they were arrested with a two-yearold boy, Keghter Julius who was earlier reported missing at the ‘E’ Police Division by his father.
In an interview with Daily Trust, Ternenge said she visited her boyfriend at Kilometre 4, a Makurdi suburb and found the said child in his possession and upon enquiry she was told that his elder sister went on an errand for him.
“The child was crying so my boyfriend said I should carry the baby and escort him to the road. He promised to give me N20,000 but while we were going, we were intercepted and arrested. I was later told that the child was stolen,” Ternenge said.
On his part, Shija corroborated the narration of his girlfriend, adding that he only wanted to return the child to his parents since the elder sister whom he sent on an errand was no longer anywhere to be found.
He added that he had earlier been arrested over the theft of a two-year-old child but was let of the hook by a court.
A nursing mother, Ada Benjamin, named in the kidnap, however denied that she knew the suspects or played any role at all in the kidnap of the rescued child or of other children, stressing that she was in her house when Shija came and threatened her to give him some money.
“I reported the matter to my husband on telephone and he told me to quickly go to the nearest police station to report the threat. I was on my way to the police when I called my lawyer who directed me to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID). It was when I got here (police headquarters) that I met Shija and his girlfriend.
“Ask them, they don’t know me and I don’t know them. The police had asked me to go back home that day after taking my statement because I was nursing a child and to return the next day.
“I came back and they grouped me along with them. I’m a mother of six children, how can I steal another person’s child?” Benjamin asked.
But, Shija insisted that he knows the woman and had been going to her house after she was introduced to him by one Daddy Scooper, an ex-convict for alleged several kidnapping crimes.
The police commissioner confirmed that the suspects have all been charged to court.