A twelve-month-old baby boy was on Sunday evening
stolen by an unknown teenager during a wedding reception at Umuezeala Umuozu
village Ngugo community in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State.
The incident took place during the wedding
reception ceremony of former staff of Nigeria Newspoint Newspaper, Mr. Chinonso
Cletus Oriaku at his in-laws’ home where he also performed traditional marriage
ceremony.
According to the mother of the stolen baby
boy and wife of the groom’s elder brother, Mrs. Peace Oriaku, she gave the baby
to her younger sister when she wanted to have her bath to join others at the
venue of the occasion and did not ask for him after bathing because he was not
crying.
She added that her sister decided to hand the
baby, Prince Oriaku, over to an unknown but friendly young girl of about 17
years, who had been around the family house and helping them to organize things
for the ceremony since morning, when she wanted to attend to another issue.
The truamatised mother disclosed that when she
wanted to breastfeed the baby and requested for him around 5.30pm, her sister
discovered that the girl and the baby were nowhere to be found.
All efforts made by the baby’s father, Mr.
Evans Oriaku and the youths of the village to recover the baby proved abortive
as the mother of the baby wept uncontrollably.
Relatives of both in-laws said they thought
the girl was a member of the family of their in-laws or a friend of the bride
because she had been lurking around since morning as a member of either of the
families.
Commenting on the incident, the new couple,
Mr. Chinonso Oriaku said the entire families and their friends were shocked by
the incident, adding that efforts were on to locate the woman and the missing
baby.
This is not the first time a baby was stolen
from public event in the state. It would be recalled that about one month ago,
one-old baby girl, Febechukwu Egwuchukwu was stolen from a night vigil at
Nnempi community in Oru West council area of the state but was fortunately
recovered when she was being dedicated at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church,
Amaigbo in Nwangele LGA.
Also, in February this year, 16 month-old Emmanuel Onyekachi
Alamanjo was reportedly abducted from Saint Mary’s Catholic Cathedral Parish,
Okigwe, giving the impression that hoodlums have again started kidnapping,
snatching and stealing toddlers from churches in the State.
There had also been cases of hoodlums
snatching babies from their mothers at gun-point in the state since the last
three months.
