Woman abducts stepdaughter in Lagos, buries her in soak-away

From:	<Linda Ikeji>

Aminat Akanni (pictured above) has been arrested by police in Lagos for allegedly abducting two of her stepchildren and killing one of them by pushing her in a soak-away, Punch reports

The hopeless woman, who was arrested on October 9th, did this because her husband refused to buy Sallah clothes for her own son.

Aminat reportedly abducted her two step children, 7 year old Lateef and 4 year old Nofisat on Oct. 3rd, a day to the Sallah celebration, from their home at Church street, Lagos Island. She lived in Orile.

The father went to police to report them missing and the police managed to trace the missing children to their step-mum after a family friend called to say he'd seen Lateef with Aminat around CMS bus stop. After she was arrested, she confessed to abducting the kids and confessed to killing one of them, 4 year old Nofisat.

The devastated father spoke to Punch about what happened;

"I married Aminat in 2010. In order to avoid a crisis at home, I rented an apartment for her at Mosalashi Street, Alakara in Orile. She has only one son for me. His name is Yusuf. She does not come to Church Street, Lagos Island where I live with my first wife.

"What happened was that on the evening of Friday, October 3, when I returned from work- just a day to the Sallah celebrations- I sent the two children to go buy biscuits in front of the street. That was around 7pm. We expected them till around 9pm. I was shocked. I quickly rushed to the Adeniji Adele Police Division, and reported the incident.

"Believe me, I and their mother, Funmilayo, could not sleep all through that night. We were walking around throughout the night from one police division to the other, repeating the same thing. The whole Sallah celebration was a sad one as I looked for my two children. Little did I know that it was my second wife who sneaked into our area to abduct them."

"The following morning, around 11am, Aminat called me and heard me crying on the phone. I told her that we were looking for Lateef and Nofisat, she simply said, 'All I know is that no one can kidnap my own son.' I was shocked at her statement, but I never thought she was the one behind the whole trouble.

"It was six days later when the police arrested her that she then confessed that she committed the act because she claimed I was not taking care of her, and I had not bought sallah clothes for her son, which is not true. She had sneaked to our area, and asked the two kids to follow her to Orile. This is unimaginable for me."

The dead child's mother also spoke with Punch

"Aminat killed my daughter. She made us to have a sorrowful Sallah. We were running around police stations. She said she wanted to punish me and my husband because she was having issues with us. So, why did she not come after us, why after my two children?"

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the incident, adding that Aminat was now in police custody. He said,

"Aminat Akanni is the second wife of the complainant. Investigation revealed that the corpse of Nofisat was recovered by the Orile Division in a sudden and unnatural death.

"The suspect confessed to have drowned the child and dropped the corpse at Orile. The case has now been transferred to the Orile Division for further synchronisation and action."