The Ondo state police command has arrested three suspects over kidnapping and child trafficking allegations.

Addressing journalists in Akure, the Ondo capital, on Saturday, Wilfred Afolabi, commissioner of police, said 14 children between the ages of one week and seven years were rescued.

The suspects were identified as Lukman Isiaka, 42; Abosede Olanipekun; and Sabira Izuorah, 62.

The arrests followed a report by a mother whose 18-month-old child was abducted in Akure.

“A case of a missing child was reported at Okuta Elerin-Nla division in Akure. A complainant reported that a man, Samuel Adejobi (real name: Lukman Isiaka, m age, 42 years), and a woman, Ewatomi (real name: Abosede Olanipekun), came to her shop pretending to be siblings to eat,” the police commissioner said.

“While playing with the complainant’s child, Abosede deceived her by claiming she wanted to buy biscuits for the baby.

Meanwhile, Lukman distracted the complainant by engaging her in a personal conversation and requested she followed him to Olukayode Plaza in the market to get a mobile phone.

“On getting to the market area, he abandoned her and left.

On getting back to the shop, the complainant 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.”

Investigations led the police to Ottah Village in Edo state, where Isiaka and Olanipekun were apprehended.

During interrogation, Afolabi said the suspects confessed to abducting children from Ondo and Osun states and selling them to one Sabira Izuorah in Ihiala, Anambra state, for N1 million per child.

Subsequently, Izuorah was arrested in Ihiala, and four infants were recovered from her residence.

The rescued babies were identified as “Baby Favour, three weeks old; Baby Chidera, two weeks old; Baby Chinyere, two months and five days old; and Baby Uzoma, one week old”.

The police commissioner added that on January 14, ten children sold by Izuorah were rescued from various locations. These children have been reunited with their families.

Afolabi said some children remain unaccounted for and assured that efforts are ongoing to locate and rescue them.

The people of Ugama village in the Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State are in fear after some individuals, suspected to be cattle rustlers, launched an attack involving ritual killings and theft of property on Thursday.

Reports indicate that the attackers are Fulani from Ugama village. Eyewitnesses have confirmed that at least 20 people were slaughtered, while many others were injured.

Malam Yusufa Ugama, a resident who narrowly escaped the attack, stated that after the ritual killings, some of the assailants attacked the village and set it on fire. He also mentioned that the village’s livestock was stolen.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, but Yusufa explained, “We saw people armed with guns, machetes, and knives, and they were calling themselves cattle rustlers.”

A source also revealed that there had been a dispute between the villagers and their chief, whose name was not disclosed, over the sale of village farmland.

The Public Relations Officer of the Kaduna State Police Command, DSP Mansur Hassan, confirmed the incident to TST Hausa, but stated that the police had not yet received any formal complaints from the villagers or any group regarding the attack or those accused of the killings.

Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources has disciplined some individuals for defecating on the Ile Epo Pedestrian Bridge in the Abule Egba area of the state.

Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this in a post on X.com on Saturday.

Wahab stated, “The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources enforcement team has taken decisive action at Ile Epo Pedestrian Bridge, addressing the issue of hoodlums who defiled the bridge with waste and defecation.”

The offenders were arrested on Saturday and tasked with cleaning the bridge, removing all waste and restoring it to a hygienic condition.

Similarly, the commissioner said hotspots were raided and hoodlums nabbed.

He said: “In the early hours of today, the Lagos State Environmental Task Force embarked on raid of some notable spots within Ikeja.

“Some miscreants had turned them to safe havens to perpetrate evil act by unleashing attack on unsuspecting late and early hours innocent passers-by, particularly those coming in and out of Ambiance Hotel within the area.

“They dispossesses them of their personal belongings.

“The area raided includes black spots around Ayinke House, Ikeja, under bridge and all around Ambiance Hotel. 27 suspects were arrested and will be charged to court,” he noted.