Parent of kidnapped Rivers children accuse police of demanding N200k

A parent of children who were kidnapped in Rivers state by ‘a home lesson teacher‘ has accused the police of demanding N200,000 to speed up investigation.

A woman, who disguised as a home lesson teacher, had kidnapped five children in the Rukpakulusi axis of Eliozu in Rivers State 11 days ago.

The five children, aged between 18 months and four years, were abducted by the suspect after she asked them to follow her to where she would buy writing materials for them.

The father of two of the children, Mr Emmanuel Benjamin, told The Punch on Tuesday that the police at the Okporo station demanded the sum of N200,000 from him to speed up investigation and track the suspect.

Emmanuel expressed sadness over the incident, saying he did not know the state of health of his boys identified as Idara and Emem.

“I have not seen my children since that day. I feel bad. There is nobody that will not feel bad if such a thing happens to them. I can’t even sleep and I am not happy at all,” he stated.

He noted that the police demanded money from the family to speed up investigation.

“They are not working on this case. When we went there, they asked us to bring money.

“I went to Okporo Police Station. They said we should bring money and the phone number that they would track. They said we should bring N200,000 so they could find where the woman lives. But I don’t have that kind of money. I am not a big man,” Emmanuel stated.