A Point of Sales terminal operator has lost her 7-year-old daughter, Mercy Akande, to a customer who spent some time to gain her trust through consistent patronage.
The customer reportedly went to the POS operator to withdraw money over time and would sit around to buy and eat food while chatting with the operator and her daughter.
According to the nephew of the operator, @Mimara_concept, who escalated the issue on social media, the customer would often buy Mercy food and gift her money.
On the day he kidnapped Mercy, he reportedly arrived as usual and bought food for himself and the girl, before later sending the girl to buy pure water for him.
When the Mercy was returning from the errand, he reportedly stood up to meet her and then diverted her elsewhere.
When his number was dialled, he told the POS operator that he was under the Bridge at Sango. Subsequent calls to him went unanswered.
When the mother of the child reported at the police station, he was asked to bring N10,000 to write a statement. She paid N8,000 and another N2000 for printing out the pictures of the missing girl.
The police are reportedly asking for N30,000 to begin their search for the girl.
Read the full account as narrated by @mimara_concept below:
“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 halfway 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 up and said he was at Sango under the 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.
@Princemoye1, @BenHundeyin they have reported to a police station in Sango and the struggling mom has been asked to pay a total of 10k to report the case (she has done that). And to bring 30k for the guy’s phone number to be tracked. She’ll be going back there tomorrow to pay.
As it is now. Work hasn’t even started. She only paid 8k to write her statement at the station and a total of 2k to print out pictures of the missing girl. Then to track the phone number, she has to pay the sum of 30k and get a court affidavit to take to MTN office.
Now she can’t get a court affidavit because of the holidays so we’re waiting for the 27th to pay the 30k and get the court affidavit. Omo it’s crazy. @Princemoye1, @PoliceNG, @BenHundeyin,
The Force PRO, Muyiwa Adejobi has reacted to the incident. He frowned at the request for money by the policemen at Sango, calling it inhuman.
He asked the victims to contact him directly.
Mimara_Concept has asked for the phone number of the police spokesperson.
“@Princemoye1 you commented on someone’s quote here that we should send you an SMS directly. Please how can we reach you? Where can I get the number? Time is running out,” he tweeted.
