The Ogun State Police Command has refuted claims that its officers demanded N40,000 to investigate a child kidnapping case in Sango Ota.

The incident began when a social media user reported that 7-year-old Mercy Akande had been abducted on December 23. Mercy’s mother operates a PoS business in Sango Ota, where the suspect, a frequent customer, allegedly carried out the kidnapping. Pretending to conduct a transaction, the suspect distracted Mercy’s mother and took the child to an unknown location.

‘’My cousin is missing. She was kidnapped by a stranger on the 23rd of December, 2024.

The mom, my aunty, does POS business at Sango, Ogun State. She has a male customer that usually comes to withdraw money and buy recharge cards. He doesn’t stay in the area. He became friends with the little girl and was always buying her food and gifting her money whenever he came to the store.

On the 23rd morning, he came to the store, bought food for himself and the little girl as usual, the mom was busy attending to other customers.

He sent the little girl to go get pure water for him, ( a 7 year old girl). On her way back, he approached her half way to get the pure water from her. The mom saw this and wasn’t comfortable with it but was distracted by the attention from other customers.

By the time she turned towards the daughter’s direction to check what was happening, the guy and her daughter were nowhere to be found.

They searched everywhere for them but to no avail. She tried calling the customer (she had his phone number) he picked and said he was at Sango under bridge and that he was going to call her back. Up till now he has refused to answer his call. Now the number is no longer reachable.

We still cannot find my cousin. This is the phone number of my aunty’s customer, the kidnapper: 07072823833.”

The social media user alleged that the police requested N10,000 to file the complaint and another N30,000 to track the suspect’s phone.

Responding to these allegations, SP Omolola Odutola, spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, firmly denied any such demands. She called the accusations false and urged the public to ignore the misinformation.

‘’However, the police officer who received the complaint from the counter acted unprofessionally, as the matter was not escalated to the divisional police officer, which is necessary for appropriate attention. Internal disciplinary measures have been meted out against the erring police officers for failure to notify the Divisional police officer (DPO) of the magnitude of the report.

The Divisional police officer has since reached out to the victim’s family, who have provided valuable information and efforts to locate the kidnappers and rescue the victim unhurt have commenced.”

SP Odutola also encouraged community members to support the search for Mercy by sharing her photo and providing any information that could help track the suspect. The police assured the public that efforts to rescue Mercy and arrest the culprit are ongoing.

The Ogun State Police Command is appealing to anyone with useful information to come forward anonymously and assist in ensuring the safe return of the missing child.