How 20-yr-old stole neighbour's son for 9 days *Claimed he was her child

Written by Oluwatoyin Malik
Sunday, February 13, 2011


GOOD neighbourliness is encouraged among Africans who are usually closely knitted, even when they are not blood-related. Communal living is very common and it is a normal occurrence for a woman to leave her child in the care of another neighbour, without giving it a thought that any harm would come to the child.




[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2011/feb/13/tribune/images/kidnappin1[1].jpg[/img]
Bose



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Contrary was the case however in Kudeti area of Ibadan, Oyo State, when a young woman disappeared into the thin air with the five-month-old baby of her neighbour and kept the child for nine days in a far away village where she gave the impression that the child was hers - until she was smoked out of the place by police from the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan.


Nineteen-year-old Tawa Razak, the mother of the baby, whose name was given as Sunday, lives with her mum at Kudeti since she was not married to the father of her child. The abductor, one Bose Amoo, also lives with her lover, in the same house with Tawa. While Tawa lives on the first floor of a storey building, Bose and her 'husband' lived on the ground floor of a face-me-I-face-you building.


As is common among those who live in such buildings, Tawa used to go to the ground floor to chat with others while sitting together in the open space at the front of the house. Also, Tawa's neighbours, especially Bose, used to play with her son, Sunday, while Bose would sometimes put him on her back and stroll out to buy things. Nobody ever thought she could harbour any dangerous plan against Tawa and her son until Wednesday January 19, 2011, when the unususal occurred.


According to Tawa, "I was upstairs around 6p.m. when a young girl living in our house came to tell me that Bose was looking for me. I peeped from the balcony upstairs to know why she was looking for me and she asked of my baby. I told her he was sleeping. I later went downstairs to buy fairly used clothes from a hawker who came to our house. While still there, My baby defecated and I washed for him. Bose then held the baby and told me to go and bring a change of pants for him.


"I went upstrairs to do that but when I returned downstairs, I could not see Bose and my baby. I asked a girl called Funke, who sat with us, about Bose's whereabouts and she replied that Bose left immediately I went upstairs. Funke's younger sister, Deola, then told me she met Bose on the way with my baby on her back and when she enquired on where she was going, she told Deola that she was going to Idi Arere. Since she used to go out with the baby like that, I did not get worried initially.


"However, around 8.30p.m., Bose called Funke and told her that the father of my son, Dele, met her on the way and took the baby from her at Popoyemoja area. I called Dele to confirm this but was shocked when he said he did not see Bose, not to talk of taking the baby from her. That was how panic fully set in for me and the father's family. Around 11p.m., Dele came with his mum to our house and we went to report the incident at Mapo Police Station. I was briefly detained for my careless attitude while Funke who spoke with Bose on the phone and Taiwo, Bose's lover were arrested. The man was just crying that he didn't know anything about Bose's action."