A middle-aged woman, who is yet to be identified, has been nabbed while attempting to kidnap a five-year-old schoolboy in Kano, according to Daily Trust.
The boy, Bashir Jamilu, is a nursery 2 pupil of Ulumuddin Primary School, Koki.
The mother of the child, Aisha Salisu Koki, told Daily Trust that she sent him to school around 8:30am on Tuesday but on his way, he met the woman, who held him by his hands, saying she was going to buy meat, noodles and milk for him, but the boy started crying.
“Along ‘lungun barebari’, he fell on the ground and she dragged him. Just beside the school he asked to be left to go in but she refused saying that she will bring him back. That was when people began to understand what was happening.”
“When she was queried, she said he’s her son and people started beating her because they knew the child wasn’t hers.
“The moment I arrived at the place, I met her dragging the child with other people saying he’s her child. They then showed her to me as his mother.
“Upon seeing me, she (the suspect) started hitting me asking me if I was the one who gave birth to him. My son was still crying while repeatedly calling me ‘Umma ta’ (my mummy).
“That’s when I took him into the school and some policemen took her from the Vigilante people to Jakara police station”, the mother narrated.
She added that the following day, the suspect was sent to the state’s CID from where they were further directed to the state’s anti-kidnapping unit.
“I really commend the effort of the Vigilante people here because they were the ones who saw her with the child and swiftly unmask the demon in her,” she added.
Nasiru Ayuba Yusuf, the commander of Koki Vigilante group, who saw the woman dragging the child said at first, he thought she was his mother taking him to school because the child was wearing uniform.
“I told our people to watch it notwithstanding. Not too long, they called me back to inform me that she’s a kidnapper,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, who spoke to our reporter on phone, said the details of the incident were still sketchy, but he would get back as soon as he obtained more information.
The development comes weeks after Abdulmalik Tanko, a school proprietor, confessed killing five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, weeks after abducting her.