The police in Ondo State have arrest a 62-year grandmother identified as Sabira Izuorah and a bricklayer Isiaka Lukman and his wife Abosede Lukman for stealing infant children and selling them off to buyers.
According to the police the trio were arrested after a missing child in Akure, the state capital was trace to them. Also found in their possession were 14 other children including four babies between a week old and two months old. The 10 other children are between two and seven years old.
Quizzed by the police Lukman admitted that he steals the babies, and he gets N500,000 per child, while Miss Izuorah who runs an “orphanage” sells them for N1m and above.
“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 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 Okada 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.”
But Izuorah who claims to be a retired Director from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Anambra State said she usually get the babies from Mr. Lukman and his wife without paying them.
“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.”
Ondo State police commissioner, Wilfred Afolabi said the bubble burst for the syndicate after Lukman and his wife stole a child from her mother’s store. They came to the woman’s shop and engaged her a friendly conversation.
Lukman distracted the mother, while his wife Abosede lured the child away.
“Lukman abandoned the mother. When she 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.”
