The abduction of five children by a lady dressed as a teacher has been confirmed by the Rivers State Police Command.
The children, aged 18 months to four years, were allegedly kidnapped from their homes by a woman who pretended to be a teacher in the Rukpakulus axis of Eliozu in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Three of the victims were allegedly stolen from one family and two more were allegedly kidnapped from another.
Rose Monday, the mother of the first three abducted children, told reporters in Port Harcourt that the woman abducted her children as they were playing at their neighbor’s house.
Mrs Monday said the woman had disguised as a home lesson teacher looking to rent a makeshift structure in the area.
The devastated woman further said her children were last seen after the woman took them to buy notebooks, saying they never knew that she had a hidden agenda.
“I was at home when one of my children who was playing with her siblings came back alone. I asked her the whereabouts of her brothers’.
She said one aunty (woman) said she will bring them home,” she narrated. “I asked where the woman had taken them to and she replied that the woman took her to Oil Mill (a popular market in Port Harcourt) to start taking them on lessons and she and the other children followed her.
“They (children) were seven including one of my neighbour’s children.
She said the woman told her to go that she has given her money for transport, that she will bring her brothers to the house.”
Mrs. Monday’s 14-year old daughter who was initially abducted by the mystery woman narrated how she (woman) let her and their neighbour’s son off around the Oil Mill market axis, but went away with the other five children.
“I told the aunty that the small one (child) doesn’t know how to write by herself and the woman can go and buy the books.
The woman said no, that she likes little children. As I followed her, she started watching me. When I returned the looks, she smiled,” the teenager said.
“She now stopped a vehicle and all of us entered. When we got to Oil Mill, the woman kept me there and sat down. The woman now told me she wants to take the children to go pick up something.
So, I sat there for a long time. I then asked a girl operating PoS if she knew where the woman took the children to and the girl replied that she didn’t know the woman.”
The mother of the other two children, Blessing Emmanuel, said the mystery woman had hired her husband to buy materials to construct a makeshift structure before she kidnapped her children.
“So this woman told the children that she organises lessons (home classes) and that if she sees a way, she will begin lessons for them. So the grown-up child said, ‘Aunty let’s go and buy books’.
“Since I know the girl and her brothers’ who usually come to my house to play with my children because she was a former neighbour, I allowed my children to follow them,” she explained.
The acting spokesperson of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, who confirmed the incident to Punch described the parents of the abducted children as careless.
“Those people (parents) were they not careless? Somebody came to you that she is a teacher, went to their house and told them she wants to take the children and buy books for them,” she stated.
“They gave her permission to take the children. Is that how it’s intended to be? As you can see, it is the result of parents’ irresponsibility, and they will now turn to the police.
“We (police) have launched an inquiry to safeguard the children’s safety, as well as to apprehend the mother and bring her to justice.”
Parents, on the other hand, should be watchful and report strange characters approaching their children in any disguise to the authorities or raise the alarm if necessary.
