Fate smiled on an unidentified young boy hawking on Alhaji
Jamiu Sulaimon Street in Itele, Ota area of Ogun State on
Tuesday evening as he was rescued from kidnappers in the
area, just as he was about to be killed.
No 3, Alhaji Jamiu Sulaimon, where the boy was rescued is
unarguably one of the most beautiful houses on the street
but no one could have imagined the horror discovered
behind its high walls.When our correspondent visited the
scene on Wednesday morning, a police patrol vehicle was
stationed in front of the compound to ward off curious
residents and looters.
Upon gaining access to the house, it did not take long for
our correspondent to notice a spatter of blood on the walls
of almost all the toilets in the house. One particular toilet
had more heavy smears of blood on its walls and door.
According to Punch ,A resident of the street, Abdulateef Isa,
said the rescued boy used to hawk belts on the street.
“The boy is Igbo, he sells belts and he is known by
many in this area even though we don’t really know
his name.He was hawking with his friend yesterday
(Tuesday) before this whole issue came to light. His
friend, who is also an Igbo boy, knew when he was
called into the compound but when he waited for
more than 30 minutes and his friend had not come
out, he raised the alarm.”
A police officer from the Itele Police Division told our
correspondent that residents of the area came to the
station to report on Tuesday evening that a boy who went
into a compound to sell had gone missing.
“Our divisional police officer instantly issued a search
warrant and detached a team to the compound.
When
we got there, a large number of residents had
gathered and we had to be strategic in controlling
them for us to gain access.
“We got there and met a young man who said he was
the brother of the owner of the house. He started
opening each of the rooms, acting calm and repeating
that, ‘See for yourself, each room is empty.But our
DPO insisted that she perceived an odour that was
abnormal. She asked one of us to climb through a
window and check the corner of a toilet. And there
was the boy, covered in blood. He was even too weak
to shout.From the look of things, the kidnappers had
already attempted to kill the boy but hurriedly
abandoned him and fled because the victim’s friend
raised the alarm. The man we arrested must have
been given order to stay behind and divert suspicion.”
The boy was said to have been blinded in one eye as caked
blood covered one of his eye sockets. There was a bloody
deep gash on his neck also, which was suspected to have
come from an attempt to slaughter him.Our correspondent
learnt that the boy was immediately rushed to the hospital
while the man found in the house was arrested. The agent
in charge of the house was also later arrested.
Few minutes after the police left the compound, the
residents set the house ablaze and every valuable in
the house was destroyed.
When our correspondent visited Itele, the police could
not reveal the hospital where the boy was receiving
treatment for security reasons, while the names of the
arrested suspects were withheld.A four-bedroom
bungalow, painted in and out with fancy paint, it was
clear the house was built by a wealthy person.
Residents said the house was completed about three years
ago.“The generator in this house runs all day long,” one
resident told our correspondent.
The fence around the house is the highest in the area.
According to our correspondent’s measurement, it is
approximately eight feet tall, a reason neighbours
said it was not possible to see whatever went on in
the compound.The men we see coming in and going
out of the house keep to themselves. All we know is
that so many people come into the house. Nobody
has gone missing on this street before, so nobody had
any reason to suspect anything,” Mr. Olusegun Adio,
who lives a few houses down the street, told our
correspondent.
One of the leaders of the community, Alhaji Isa Jimoh, who
notified the police about the missing boy, said he never had
any inkling that kidnappers could be operating a den in the
area.
Jimoh, who lives about seven houses away from the horror
house, said,
“I have no idea who owns that house and I have no
idea when it was built. The short time it was built from
start to finish, I was not around then.When I got
report that a child who was hawking and called inside
the compound never came out, I had to inform the
police because I realised it was not the duty of
residents to storm the place.The first time the police
came, the place was under lock and key. They went
back to their office and when they came back, they
broke the gate, arrested a man inside there and
discovered the boy almost dead on the floor of one of
the toilets.”
Jimoh said no one had ever been missing in the area, which
was why they probably did not suspect any criminal activity
in the house.
Spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Mr.
Muyiwa Adejobi, said the suspects arrested in the case
have been transferred to the Department of Criminal
Investigation, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
He said,
“Our men from the Itele Division moved in as soon as
they got a report about the house suspected to be
used by kidnappers and succeeded in rescuing the
boy alive even though he was in bad shape.
The boy will pull through as he is currently receiving
treatment in a hospital. In the meantime, the
Comissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, has
ordered a comprehensive investigation into the case.
Efforts are being made to apprehend other
accomplices who fled the house. This is just an
evidence of our determination to stamp out criminality
in this state.”
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