Father collapses watching his children consumed in house fire
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A man has collapsed watching his two kids being burnt to death by a fire outbreak in their home, with their mother having locked them in to go off to buy something.
Neigbours heard the cries of the children but thought they were simply on to their usual thing.
The two kids, Jeila, 3, and Jersy, 5, both died as fire engulfed their apartment on Church Street, Oluwatuyi quarters, Akure, in Ondo.
Their father, whose name could not be ascertained at press time, collapsed and was rushed to hospital.
It was learnt that the fire started around 3:30pm on Wednesday but help did not get to the children on time.
Neighbours told The Nation that their mother locked them in the room when she went out to buy something.
Witnesses said the fire had engulfed a large part of the apartment before they knew what was happening, besides the fact the location of the building was difficult for quick access to get to the children.
The burnt remains of the toddlers were found at the entrance of the apartment after the fire was put out.
A fellow tenant, who pleaded anonymity, said people mistook the children’s cries as the effect of normal routine beating from their mother.
Policemen from the B Division in Akure evacuated the corpses.
Police nab husband and wife for alleged child theft in Ondo, recover 10 kids through them
Last weekend, a husband and wife racket team operating from Edo was arrested by police for allegedly stealing children across Ondo and Osun, with 10 of the victims recovered from a merchant in Anambra who allegedly bought them for N1 million each.
Ondo Police Command arrested Lukman Isiaka, 42, and his wife Abosede Olanipekun, 23, and allegedly recovered 10 of the stolen children, but some distraught parents thronged the command’s headquarters lamenting their own children are still missing.
The couple allegedly used various methods to abduct the children and allegedly sold each for ₦1 million to Sabina Izuorah, 62, a resident of Ihiala in Anambra.
Police investigators disclosed the suspects may have been involved in similar crimes in Edo before extending their operation to Ondo and Osun.
Many of the rescued children struggled to recognise their parents as their names had been changed and they now speak Igbo.
Four infants, aged between one and six weeks, whose parents were not yet identified, were allegedly recovered from Izuorah.
The arrest of the suspects followed a police investigation into the abduction of a child reported missing by her mother.
Police narrated that, to carry out the heist, Isiaka allegedly posed as Samuel Adejobi, promised to marry the child’s mother, and introduced his wife Abosede as his sister called Ewatomi.
On the pretext of buying the woman a phone, Isiaka left her child in the care of his “sister”.
But Isiaka and his accomplice later disappeared with the child, and the mother raised the alarm, prompting the police to track the couple to their residence in Edo.
Read also:
BREAKING: Police rescue Odumosu’s wife a week after her abduction
