Asaba Orphanage Owner Arraigned For Alleged Kidnapping

The owner of Asaba Orphanage Home, Mr Ogugua Christopher, was on Monday arraigned before a Kano State High Court over the alleged abduction and concealment of two minors from Kano State.

Christopher, who resides in Asaba, Delta State, is facing trial alongside two others — Hauwa Abubakar and Nkechi Odlyne — on a four-count charge bordering on kidnapping and wrongful concealment of minors. The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution counsel, Ms Khadija Aliyu-Umar, told the court that the offences were committed on May 1 and June 21, 2016, at Kawo and Tishama Hotoro Quarters in Kano. She alleged that Christopher kidnapped four-year-old Ibrahim Nura and four-year-old Maryam Suleiman at different times and concealed them in his orphanage, known as Happy Home, located in Asaba.

Aliyu-Umar informed the court that the prosecution had filed a 15-count charge, which was later amended to four counts, contrary to Sections 273 and 277 of the Penal Code Law of Kano State.

Defence counsel, Mr H. M. Nwoye, applied for bail and requested that the prosecution make all relevant case documents available to the defence team.

Justice Amina Adamu-Aliyu ordered that Christopher be remanded in a correctional centre and directed the prosecution to furnish the defence with the required documents before the next sitting. The case was adjourned until November 12 for a hearing.

Suleiman Muhammad, a senior intelligence officer with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), told the court that efforts were ongoing to apprehend and produce the two other defendants absent from court.

The case reportedly stemmed from a 2022 petition by the Protection Against Abduction and Trafficking of Our Children (PATAMOC) to NAPTIP over the disappearance of more than 600 children from Kano since 2010, out of which eight have so far been rescued.