BY NGOZI OKORIE
THE lifeless bodies of three children were, on Monday, discovered in a car at a retired police officer’s home, at Ugwu Ogede in the Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Five children had been missing in all, but two of them were reportedly still breathing when rescue came, The Point learnt.
They were subsequently rushed to the hospital and resuscitated.
The parents of the missing children had raised the alarm when their children did not return home from where they had gone to fetch water since 8am.
They were said to have gone to a commercial borehole in the retired police officer’s house to fetch the water.
Search parties, The Point gathered, immediately set out to find the children to no avail.
The deceased children were identified as Chibugo Eze, Chinenye Eze, and Ebuka Ene.
Kingsley Eze and Mmasichukwu were however rescued alive.
The traditional ruler of the community, HRH, Igwe Ike Oke, confirmed the development to Vanguard Newspaper, describing the news as mysterious.
The monarch reportedly said that he had mobilised personnel of vigilante and Forest Guard groups who joined in the search for the missing children.
He said, “We were almost frustrated in our search when a community member who went to fetch water heard the voice of a little child calling her name. She traced the voice to a car that had been parked for over six months in the compound where she discovered the children and raised the alarm.
“We found three of the children already dead by the time we opened the car. I think they suffocated to death because the car doors were stiffed when we tried to open it at first but we engaged an artisan who forced it open.
“One of the two children rescued said they went to fetch water but didn’t meet anyone at the borehole because the owner and the entire members of the family had gone to church service.
“He informed us that they were about going home when three hooded men came from a hill beside the scene of the incident and abducted them into the car and left. He said they were all dressed in red cloths. He also said that the hoodlums returned at the middle of the night to take them away but they couldn’t open the car doors because they were stiffed.”
“We are still investigating the incident and the dead victims have been deposited in the mortuary. The owner of the house has been arrested by police,” he explained.
