Tension has gripped residents of the Agbarho Kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State following reports of proliferating thefts of children by mysterious persons. Unconfirmed reports on child stealing in the Urhobo kingdom have been alarming in recent months.

Some people claimed that strange persons have stolen about 30 children in the community between June and August this year.

The governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori is furious about the disappearance of even a single child in Agbarho and any other community in the state and has directed the chairman of the Ughelli North Local Government Area, Olorogun Jaro Egbo, to ensure security and recovery of every stolen child.

Agbarho monarch, clerics lay a curse

The Osuvie (traditional ruler) of Agbarho Kingdom, HRM Sampson Ogugu I, accompanied by several clerics and indigenes of the community, organized a prayer session at the popular Five Junction in the town, where they laid curses on the strange persons snatching children a few weeks ago.

The monarch warned, ?I have come out to place curses on evil people. Anyone stealing our children, bring them back or else you will die before December.?

Angry mob sets woman ablaze

Meanwhile, enraged villagers, penultimate Wednesday, set one Mrs. Afonuhe Eguono ablaze after accusing her of attempting to abduct a seven-year-old boy in the community.

Some residents, alleging that she was a child thief, raised the alarm that attracted an angry mob, which descended on her. They marched her close to the market before burning her alive.

Those who spoke on the sad incident off-camera insisted that the lady was innocent, adding that she was mentally unstable and so could probably not explain herself when she was questioned

An inhabitant who differed with the crowd said, ?The woman was innocent; she was residing in Agbarho with her family. Her husband works offshore; the horde killed a blameless woman.?

Anxiety everywhere

Saturday Vanguard visited the Agbarho community during the week. Our reporters established that there were indeed cases of child theft, but there was nothing to validate the claim that about 30-50 children have been stolen. However, it was palpable that there was fear among the residents over what they described as incessant kidnapping of children. Some of the residents said that suspects arrested and handed over to the police were released, but the police debunked the allegation.

It?s not true that 50?60 kids are missing ?Egbo, Ughelli North LG boss

Olorogun Egbo, a lawyer and chairman of Ughelli North, told Saturday Vanguard in his office on Tuesday that he was aware of only three children missing in the Agharho Kingdom, adding that the huge number being bandied around could not be verified.

?We had seven cases and later, it came down to six, and now, three are unaccounted for. One was a four-year-old child from a broken home. The father of the child came to take the child away to the Otokutu community in Ughelli South local government. We have recovered the boy.

?Another one, about 17 years old, allegedly eloped. We have also established contact. A third case was found in a wheelbarrow, otherwise know an ?iron condemn cart,? pushed by scrap collectors. The kidnapper was arrested and I wanted the family to go to court over the matter, but they said they were not interested since they had found their child.

?The record from the police and the families is that we are unable to account for three children. We are treating the issue with all seriousness. We have said that we will pay N5,000,000 for any information that will lead us to recover any of the children. We have been getting calls from some members of the public. We have been to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and Bayelsa State. We are hopeful our children will come back to us. This story of 50, 60 missing children is not correct,? he said.

How our four-year-old child was stolen ? Mr and Mrs Gilbert

The most recent case of an abducted child in the area was that of four-year-old Master Divine Gilbert.

The father of little Divine, Mr Elisha Gilbert, who spoke about the painful development on September 17 during a protest in the community over the incident, said the child was stolen from his residence at Oviri.

?We are protesting because of my missing child. He was stolen on Sunday after we returned from church in the Oviri area of Agbarho. My child?s name is Divine; he is four years old. Please, whoever is holding my child, should bring him, I am begging them. My child was stolen in the afternoon at about 2 pm. I am also appealing to the residents of Agbarho to report any case of a strange child that surfaces in their compound. My wife went to make the hair of one of our children. It was when she came back that she found out the brother of the child she went with was missing,? he said.

Mother of the missing Divine, Madam Favour, was very emotional as she spoke about her child, begging that anyone holding him should bring him back to the family.

?I gave birth to my child through a caesarean operation. I was in the hospital for more than a week after delivery because I was placed on oxygen. Anybody who sees my child should bring him, I won?t hold you responsible, I am begging you all,? she said.

Saturday Vanguard learned that a few days after the protest, a boy was allegedly apprehended in the town at a private school where he had reportedly gone to steal a child. He was handed over to the police.

?The young boy was seen giving money to children in the school. A teacher had to raise the alarm. When he was questioned, it was clear to all that he was a child kidnapper. He was handed over to the police,? an eyewitness who didn?t want her name in print said.

Egbo, the Ughelli North boss, said efforts were on to recover the four-year-old boy. His words, ?The case of Divine, we are on it. They said a man came and asked him to go and buy water. And since then, they have not seen him?. The council boss, who confirmed the suspect who was arrested on the school?s premises, clarified that the police released him when no citizen came forward to press charges.

Why we released suspect ? DPO

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Agbarho Police Station disclosed that a young boy came to a school and gave money to the students. The teachers protested that he should have passed through them.

The police arrested the suspect and later released him as no resident came forward with any allegation. The DPO stated that the police could not detain an accused person beyond a specified period, so they had to release the suspect after taking his statement.

Who are the child snatchers, ritualists, and buyers?

Saturday Vanguard findings show that there exist a few cases of missing children in the Agbarho community. The identity of the perpetrators however remains a mystery as the police are yet to unravel them. Villagers who spoke anonymously to Saturday Vanguard alleged that Yahoo Boys were behind the incidents. ?They use the children for money-making rituals,? one resident stated, adding, ?But nobody has uncovered where the ritual killings take place. Whether it is in the community or another place, I do not know?.

Another source said the children?s organs were harvested and sold as body parts to buyers. Who could be the buyers? Where do they come from? Are the children butchered in the community or elsewhere?

?Nobody has brought any case of butchered parts of children to the attention of the community in the last year,? he said.

An irate mob killed my blameless wife ? Mr Afonughe

The husband of Mrs Afonughe, who, the multitude burnt alive, Mr Christian Afonughe, told Saturday Vanguard that his wife was innocent. ?I am the husband of Mrs Eguono Afonughe, who was set ablaze. We got married in 2010. I work with a company, at a Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) location in Escravos, Warri South West Local Government Area.

?On the 19th of September, I travelled to work. On the 24th, I got a call that my wife had stolen a baby. I said no, my wife can?t do that, she sells fruits. They just murdered my wife. I watched the video when they beat my wife to death and set her ablaze. She had a little health challenge.?

When asked how he intended to pursue justice, he said he only wanted his dear wife to be given a befitting funeral, adding that it would erase the image of a kidnapper stamped on her by the mob.

?I want the chairman of the local government, the king of the Agbarho kingdom, and the president general of the kingdom to go and meet my wife?s family over how to bury her. I don?t want them to arrest anybody because I don?t want to be an enemy to any innocent person arrested. I built my house in Agbarho. I want my wife buried?, he said.

Some residents blamed the Agbarho police for not going to rescue the lady from the mob before she was set on fire. A lady said she pleaded with some police officers on a stop-and-search operation on the Ekwvere Road that evening to save the woman, but they refused.

?I still remember I saw some policemen on the Ekwvere Road that evening..I told them to go and rescue the lady, but they told me they won?t, since the mob had severely beaten her. If they had done so, probably the lady would have been alive. The DPO can?t deny that his men were not on the road when the woman was being beaten,? she said off camera.

According to Egbo, the Ughelli North local government chairman, ?her story is a sad one. The mother of the child that they claimed she stole said her child was not hidden in a sack, as several persons alleged on the day of the incident. Rather, they said she was dragging the child to come and take money, or something like that. And that was why the parents raised the alarm.

?When the matter got to me, I insisted that she should not be buried immediately until her family surfaced. Her corpse is in the morgue. The family has come. We will support the family to give her a decent burial. It is not in anybody?s position to pronounce anyone guilty,? he said.

Deploy a special task force, Egbo asks Police CP

Egbo, then called on the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olufemi Abaniwonda, to deploy a special task force to Agbarho. He said the situation should not be left to the police in Agbarho alone.

?The governor is making every effort to see that the community is secured. He influenced the transfer of a new Area Commander, Aliyu Shaba, the crime buster, and he has been on top of the situation.

?As a local government council, we are taking it very seriously, also. This is why we are offering N5 million for any information that will help. As the chairman of the council, I want to appeal to the commissioner of police for a special force to handle the matter in Agbarho. It?s a national issue. It should not be a matter for the DPO alone.

?The commissioner of police should send a special force. Is the leadership in the area hiding anything? The special force will determine it. A life lost in peacetime is more than 1,000 lives lost in times of war. This issue of missing children is a serious thing that deserves more attention. I have also directed that in any community, including Agbarho, that we have a case of a missing child, the president-general and the vigilante of the community will go. I have advised them to work with security agencies to tackle security threats.

?I also told the Agbarho monarch to be proactive. All these are happening in his kingdom. He has his council of chiefs and vigilantes working with him. He has been up and doing. Honestly, it?s an embarrassment to us, as a local government, that the incident occurred.

?The governor directed that I should ensure that any missing child is brought back. And that is what we are doing. I have spoken with the DPO of Agbarho four times today (Tuesday) to know the latest from him. The last time we had a problem of kidnapping in the local government, the police brought a special squad to the area, and we recorded success. Now, we need a special squad that will investigate every lead from the beginning. We need to know much about all the cases, including the ones we have found.?

Sen Dafinone says issue of child theft in Agbarho is horrifying

Senator Ede Dafinone, representing the Central senatorial district, described the cases of missing children in the area as very disturbing. His words: ?I am deeply alarmed by the disturbing wave of child abductions in Agbarho, which falls within the Delta Central Senatorial District that I represent. Reports show that in recent months, more than six children, between the ages of three and 10, have gone missing, leaving families devastated and the community in fear.

?This crisis, which spiked in June with four disappearances, sparked protests by aggrieved women on September 16 and culminated tragically on September 24 when a mob lynched a woman accused of attempted kidnapping. While the community?s frustration is understandable, such acts of jungle justice only deepen the crisis and risk innocent lives. To the grieving families, I extend my heartfelt condolences and solidarity.

Your pain is our collective burden, and I pledge to continue pressing for answers and justice at the highest levels of government. Every missing child is a future we cannot afford to lose, and I will not relent until they are found and safety is restored.

I call on the Delta State Police Command, Ughelli Area Command, and relevant federal agencies to intensify investigations, strengthen patrols, and work closely with the NAPTIP to dismantle any network behind these abductions?whether ritual or trafficking-related.

?The recent rescue of eight trafficked children in Delta proves that proactive measures can work. I also urge community leaders, under the guidance of the Ovie of Agbarho, to sustain vigilance through neighbourhood watches, parental awareness, and partnerships with schools. Let us resist jungle justice and instead channel our anger into unity, vigilance, and cooperation with law enforcement. (Vanguard)

Update news