A supposedly mad woman, wearing a hijab, has been arrested by the police in Lagos for stealing three kids from a community at Itire area of the metropolis. The kids, between one and four years, were abducted as they were returning from an Arabic school in the community. The suspect, Naimilatu Raheem, was said to have first attempted to kidnap a set of twins, not far from the Arabic school when their grandmother sighted her. The people around challenged her and rescued the twins.
She immediately disappeared from the scene. Raheem, however, did not go far. She accosted Mrs Damilola Alimi on the road, who was returning from the Arabic school with her one-year old baby, Fathia. She snatched the girl from her mother. When Raheem’s bag was searched after her arrest, kiddies’ clothes, slippers, ‘amala and ewedu’ were discovered. Before the arrival of the police, the residents dragged her to Oba’s palace, where she allegedly confessed that one Alhaja, who sells herbs, sent her to abduct kids. A female resident said:
“How can she now start claiming to be mad? She is not mad! When her phone rang, the caller ID was, ‘My love.’ But she refused to pick it.”
Some of the residents said that ID card found on her, showed that her name is Nimot Lukman, who sells soft drinks and resides at Costain area of the metropolis. When journalists asked the suspect some questions, she couldn’t make any sense. She cried throughout. A police source, however, said that the woman had a two-year-old son in the Arabic school, called Mohammed. Alimi, still shocked over the incident, said:
“She approached me and demanded for my baby. Without thinking twice or even knowing what I was doing, I handed Fathia to her. Someone watching us asked me if I knew her. When I said I didn’t, the person asked why I gave my baby to her. I immediately snatched my baby from her. She ran away.”
When Raheem realised that the people in the neighbourhood had discovered her game plan, she ran into the mosque, which housed the Arabic school, whipped out a hijab from her handbag, covered her head and pretended to be praying.