Tension has gripped the Ogwashi-Uku community in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State following the mysterious abduction of four young girls.
The children, identified as 6-year-old Ebube Nwafido, her 3-year-old sister Miracle, 7-year-old Chimamanda, and 5-year-old Excel, popularly known as Tinubu, were reportedly taken on Friday by three unidentified women who recently moved into the Umuokwe quarters of the town.
Eyewitnesses say the women had arrived earlier in the week and secured emergency accommodation in the neighbourhood.
Suspicion grew after the women were last seen luring the girls under the guise of buying them biscuits from a popular local supermarket. The children never returned.
Community members say the women had previously approached Mrs. Bose Nwafido — mother of two of the abducted girls, seeking help in finding accommodation, a move now seen as part of a calculated plan.
Nwafido lamented: “last Monday, the three women came asking me for a house to rent. I pointed to a direction but moment later, one of them came back and said she drank Pepsi and zobo and that she was having a running stomach; that I should allow her make use of our toilet.
“I took the lady to back of our house where she defecated in a bush and thereafter she told me she was going to withdraw money from PoS to pay for the accommodation.
“The lady later came back when I left for market and carried my first son, 10-year-old Ifechukwude to know their house and that is how they started showing kindness to children around, unknown to many they had evil plan.”
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She said she left the children at home on Friday morning to attend a program, instructing them, as usual, to stay and play within the compound.
“At about 12 noon, some children came back to say aunty want to buy biscuits for us.”
Further investigations revealed that when the children, including the other two girls, were no longer seen around the compound, concerned neighbors raised an alarm. Upon visiting the apartment rented by the women, they discovered it was completely empty—both the occupants and the children were gone.
Kingsley Nwafido, father of Ebube and Miracle, along with his wife, expressed deep shock and distress over the sudden disappearance of their daughters.
