The Delta State Police Command has arrested 49-year-old Mrs. Joy Temitope Oyetimi for allegedly drugging her business partner and abducting her two-month-old baby.
Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, while parading the suspect in Asaba on Thursday, said the incident took place on February 16, 2025.
Oyetimi had traveled with a 20-year-old nursing mother from Koko to Warri for a business trip. During the journey, she allegedly gave the young mother a drug-laced juice, causing her to fall asleep instantly. Oyetimi then fled with the infant boy.
Following an intelligence-led investigation, the Divisional Police Officer in Ekpan tracked and arrested the suspect. During questioning, Oyetimi confessed to the abduction.
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The baby, now five months old, has been rescued and reunited with his parents. The suspect remains in custody as investigations continue.
In a separate operation on May 12, police recovered N3.1 million from four suspected kidnappers during a stop-and-search along the Kwale/Ozoro section of the Ughelli–Asaba expressway.
The suspects, Abubakar Alwalu (25), Usman Husseini (25), Adamu Mohammed (30), and Anwalu Umaru (23) were intercepted while traveling in a gold Toyota Sienna bus.
CP Abaniwonda said preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were part of a five-man gang that abducted a woman in Ughelli, held her captive for four days, and collected N4 million in ransom. The victim has positively identified them.
In another breakthrough, police operatives arrested a 22-year-old suspected kidnap gang leader, Abdullahi Ibrahim, from the Ekenwa community in Ovia North-East LGA of Edo State. He was tracked and apprehended in Ore, Ondo State, on May 10.
Ibrahim later led police to another suspect, Adamu Usman (24), a native of Abeokuta, also hiding in Ore. Acting on the suspects’ confessions, police recovered an AK-47 rifle loaded with 14 live rounds and a locally made long gun with six cartridges from a forest near the Ore-Lagos expressway, in an area known as “Stepdown.”
CP Abaniwonda reaffirmed the command’s commitment to combating criminal activities and ensuring the safety of residents across the state.