Two-year-old Rabi’at Rabiu, daughter to a staff member of Daily Trust, Rabi’u Yakubu, is yet to be found two weeks after her abduction.
The girl was kidnapped on Sunday, August 7, 2022, at Tungan Maje community, Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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The distraught parents said they have reported the incident to Tungan Maje and Zuba Police stations.
Mother of the missing child, Safiya Rabi’u, said the girl was taken from her niece by two men who tricked them after buying Bobo (a drink) for them.
“My child was abducted between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Sunday, August 7, 2022. I left her at home sleeping and went to the market. When she woke up she started crying. My elder sister’s five-year-old daughter took her out to play.
“They told me that two men took my daughter from them. When they got to the spot where the two men were standing, they asked them why the baby was crying and where they were taking her to. They said they were taking the child to her mother. One of the men now said, ‘Come, let me buy Bobo for you.’ He went to one provision store nearby and bought Bobo for all of them.”
The father of the child, Rab’u Yakubu, said he sent his brother to Zuba police station to report the incident, but was told that the parents of the child were the ones who ought to do so.
According to him, he did not do so until he learnt that somebody was caught with a child in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Yakubu said he met the Divisional Police Officer of Zuba who later collected his phone number and photograph of the missing child.
He said: “So, I went to Zuba and asked them to get in touch with Ibadan, they said no, they could not do so because that is a state Command and they are in Abuja. They said they could only contact their control room in Abuja.
“After two days again, we went back. I met the DPO and he said, my brother came that very day and he asked him to bring the father or the mother of the child, but they did not come back. He now said that the only thing they could do was to signal the command in Garki, Abuja, that if they signal the command, the command would signal the Inspector Gene0ral (IG). That was on Friday, but till today, they have not called.”
Yakubu said his child is the fifth to be abducted from the community recently, adding that none of the abducted children has been found.
When contacted, spokesperson of FCT Police Command, DSP Josephine Adeh, said she would contact the DPO in the area before commenting on the issue. However, there was no further response from her at the time of filing this report.
