Life is hard for Sojine Anani and his wife, Akuvi,
a Togolese couple who came to settle in Nigeria
about 10 years ago. This was immediately
obvious right from the entrance of the cemented
red-brick bungalow they live in on a street in
Shasha, Akowonjo area of Lagos.
The Ananis live in a small one-room apartment
with their three young children.But between 2am
and 4am on Monday, May 26, 2014, night
marauders came calling in their home when
Akuvi’s husband was away at work in Apapa
area of Lagos.Their target was one single thing;
the couple’s three-year-old daughter,
Blessing.On Sunday (May 25) Sojine left for work
in Apapa. By nightfall, his young wife and three
children went to sleep, in the same room.But by
morning, the girl among the children was
missing.Akuvi, a trader in her 20s told Punch
I woke up around 2am to plug our
rechargeable lamp when electricity came
on. Two of my children slept on the bed
beside me while Blessing slept on the floor
on a mat.I went back to sleep and I
remember Blessing was exactly where she
was on the floor when we all went to bed
in the night. By 4.30am, I woke up because
it was my turn to sweep our compound.
“The first thing I noticed was that the
drawer where I keep my children’s clothes
was pulled out and placed on the floor. I
put on the light and realised my daughter
was gone.I went to the window after I
checked the door and what I saw made me
scream,
I wish I did not come to Nigeria for a better
life. My life is finished now, my child is
gone.My life is over, I can’t stand this
agony. I never knew a child could be stolen
while asleep in her own house in the middle
of the night. I knew thieves break in to
steal money and other valuables, but I
never heard of thieves breaking in to steal
a child.This is unfair. I don’t even feel safe
again. The police are not helping at all.
Had I known, I would have stayed back in
Togo. I am finished.I am all alone. My
husband, who is supposed to be here is
suffering in jail. Police are not even telling
me anything. Where would I search for my
child? I cannot sleep or shut my eyes, all I
see is the face of my girl and I cannot stop
thinking about what is happening to her.
Blessing is still missing and her father is
languishing in police custody. All these have
compounded Akuvi’s agony. Her relations told
our correspondent that they feared for her
mental health because she had remained
inconsolable since the incident and had started
acting sometimes like she is not in her right
senses.
The police claimed she used an unothordox
method to find the person that stole her baby.
She was said to have taken the suspect to a
seer’s house, an offence responsible for her
husband’s detention.
My children are suffering because their
father has been locked up by the police. He
is the breadwinner. Why are the police
doing this to us? Why are they making us
suffer more?”I am confused, I don’t know
what is happening to me. I can’t find my
daughter and police has detained my
husband in cell,”
At the backyard of the house in which the
Ananis live is a detached single room apartment,
inhabited by an indigene of Calabar, Cross River
State, a man called Sunny.Sunny’s room is
adjacent the Ananis’ window. But that was not
the reason Akuvi suddenly stood up that day and
went to drag their neighbour out of his room,
accusing him of stealing her child.
She said,
“Sunny always joked with my daughter in
my presence that he would take her away.
Few days before she went missing, a man
visited him. Both the stranger and Sunny
sat at the backyard.But when the man saw
my daughter, he asked me if she was mine
and I said, yes. He simply said she was a
good girl. But when the man left, I had to
ask Sunny’s wife who the man was. She
said she was her husband’s relation. It
was strange the way he tried to get
information about my daughter. But I did
not think it was anything.I had to hold on
to Sunny when my child went missing
simply because he always talked about my
daughter.”
One of Akuvi’s relations said..
“We wanted to try everything before it was
too late to get the child back. The police
visited but did not seem to be doing much
about finding the child. So, we took Sunny
to a seer’s house.
When we got there, the seer said the
person who stole the child was an insider.
We left the place and asked Sunny to take
us to the house of his friend who visited
days before. When we got to a house he
took us to, he changed his mind and said
it was not the place. He took us to another
place and said he was not sure that was
where he lived. When he took us to a third
place and he seemed to be deceiving us,
people who followed us started to beat
him. But the police arrived and took him
away.”
But a group of the Ananis’ relations and
neighbours showed up at the Shasha Police
Division, calling on the police to do something
fast about the missing child.Nine of them were
rounded up including the victim’s father and a
nursing mother with her baby. The Divisional
Police Officer, Nwachukwu Eburuaja, ordered
them detained..On Monday, our correspondent
learnt that the policemen investigating the
matter at the State Criminal Investigation
Department, Yaba, Lagos said Sojine and
neighbours detained with him would not be
released until he had paid N220,000.
Our correspondent was told Sojine and his
family could hardly afford decent three square
meals in a day.
When our correspondent relayed the accusation
of extortion against the police to the Police
Public Relations Officer in the state, Ngozi
Briade, she swung into action and contacted the
authorities of the SCID.
Braide explained that the father of the victim
along with the other detainees were accused of
“trial by ordeal.”
She said,
“When the family reported the abduction,
the police went in and questioned the
parents of the abducted child. But later, we
learnt they took a neighbour they suspected
of being responsible for the abduction to a
native doctor, who said the man was the
culprit. That is illegal; we call that trial by
ordeal in law.
“Later, police were alerted to an attempt to
lynch the suspected man. A team
intervened, rescued the man and arrested
those responsible for the attempted
lynching and trial by ordeal.”
Our correspondent provided her with the names
of the policemen accused of demanding bribe for
the release of the victim’s father and the other
individuals.
But after making her findings, she said the
accusation was denied by the concerned
policemen. She said the deputy commissioner of
police in charge of the SCID had been notified
about the case and had promised that they
would be released on Tuesday.
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