A suspected ritualist during the weekend was apprehended at Iyana Iba market in Lagos for allegedly kidnapping three children.  The suspect allegedly took the children, aged four, six and seven years, on the pretext that she wanted to buy biscuits for them.

The mother of the children, Mrs. Iyabo Lawal, said: “I was in the shop when the man passed the first time, I didn’t know he was monitoring my kids who were playing with my mother in her shop.

“I was busy attending to customers and didn’t notice when my children followed him. I thought they were still playing in my mother’s shop, not knowing that a stranger had taken them away.

“Some people, who saw my children with the man at the end of Iyana Iba road, questioned him on what he was doing with the children and he told them he was going to buy something for them.

“When he could not answer the neighbours satisfactorily, they raised alarm and people gathered and started beating him.

“At this time I had started looking for my children when someone alerted me that they had seen them with a man at the other side of road.”

The suspect, who identified himself as Ihenacho and claimed to be a security man at Alaba International Market, refused to disclose what he was doing with the children.

The suspect was later handed over to policemen from Ojo Police Division.