Ololade Adeyanju/
In the last five years, every November 19, Umar Suleiman has never failed to recall, via a Facebook post, the tearful events of same date in 2016, when his daughter, Khadijat, then 2 years and 7 months old, was stolen by unknown persons.
This year, in addition to his usual post, Suleiman also recalled vividly the events that preceeded the theft of his beloved daughter, in the hope that other parents will learn from his own family’s mistake.
In an interview with NewsmakersNG, Suleiman said he had left for work on that fateful day leaving his wife, who was pregnant with their second child, and Khadijat at home.
A short while later, his wife too started feeling ill and decided to visit the hospital. Due to her condition, she left Khadijat with their landlady, who lived in the same premises.
According to what he was later told after the incident, Khadijat and the landlady’s 7-year-old son were playing in the compound, because it was during school holiday. After some time, both children decided to step outside the compound to buy biscuits. It was then that they were accosted by a woman, who lured them farther away with a promise to buy them more biscuits and drink.
Suleiman said the strange woman asked them for their names and then bought biscuits and drinks for them. The woman then picked up Khadijat and asked the boy to go back home.
He said the boy followed the woman some distance before running back home to alert the neighbours to what had happened. But by the time they got back to where he left the woman with Khadijat, they had both vanished into thin air.
Suleiman said he and his wife had tried all they could to find their daughter but it had, so far, been to no avail.
He also said the shock of the incident forced Khadijat’s mother into premature labour and she had to be delivered of the pregnancy the following day, November 20, through cesarean section.
Suleiman said he and his wife were so much devastated by the incident that it wasn’t until last year, after a lot of persuasion, that they could celebrate the birthday of their second child.
See Suleiman’s Facebook post of November 19, this year:
