13-year olds who Fled their Homes in Abuja “to work for sometime” in Lagos Reunited with their Parents

Two 13-year old boys, who fled their homes in Abuja have been rescued by operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command.

The teenagers, Chidubem and Chinedu, were rescued by the RRS operatives on Monday morning after alighting from an Abuja bus at Ojodu-Berger, Lagos.

The teenagers were sighted by the officers wandering around Ojodu-Berger before they were invited for questioning.

The children had lied to the officers during interrogations that they were kidnapped and blindfolded before they were driven to Lagos by their abductors.

They added that they escaped from their abductors while they (the abductors) were sleeping under the bridge.

The officers moved the boys to the RRS Headquarters, where an investigation into their kidnapping was launched immediately.

While the investigations were on, officers suspected the children were lying about the kidnapping story. Their parents, who have been looking for the boys in Abuja since Sunday, May 14, 2017, were shocked when contacted that their children were in custody of Rapid Response Squad, Lagos.

It took three days of questioning before, Chidubem opened up that him and Chinedu connived to leave Abuja because of the poor states of their parents.

According to Chidubem;

We noticed that our parents were suffering in order to take of care us. We decided to come to Lagos and work for sometime. Whatever we were able to raise in six months, we would handover to our parents for them to start business.

We realised that the hardship was too much and that we will be helping them if we leave our families in Abuja in search of better opportunities in Lagos.

I brought my N4,200 savings while Chinedu added N500 as transport fare to Lagos. We were already in Lagos before we realised that we were simply being stupid. We were wandering about when the officer invited us for questioning.

The Commander, Rapid Response Squad, ACP Olatunji Disu, who received the parents of the teenagers on the fifth day of being in the Command’s custody, appealed to parents and guardians to monitor and take good care of their wards.

The boys were re-united and released to their parents on Friday after they had promised not to repeat their actions again.