Police arrest church member who hijack car with 12-month baby in Ilorin

Kwara State police command has arrested a middle aged man on Friday in Ilorin after he hijacked a car with a 12-month old baby on Thursday night.

Tribune Online gathered that the baby’s mother, a serving official of the Kwara state judiciary, had agreed to help the man from her church to Diviland area of Gaa-Akanbi, in the metropolis when the incident happened.

The man was said to have later hijacked the car with the baby inside and drove away.

A manhunt was immediately launched by the police while family members and friends resorted to massive social media awareness on the incident.

It was learnt that the man later abandoned the baby at Akerebiata area of the metropolis and drove back to Asa Dam area, a distance of about 10 kilometres, where he parked to spend the night with his girlfriend.

Narrating her ordeal, the woman said: “We had just finished the communion service and my baby was already restless. I had actually wanted to leave much earlier but just decided to stay for the grace. And then this man came up to me asking that I help him up to Diviland, which is just near my own house.

“I agreed to help him and just as I took the turn to our house immediately after Diviland, he brought out a knife and asked me to surrender the car. I struggled with him for sometime because I noticed that the knife he carried was not a very strong one but there was nobody to come to my aid. He later pushed me out and that was when people around realised something was wrong so they came but he had already sped off.”

“It was gathered that immediately the matter was reported at the ‘A’ Division police station, men of the state command went into action and traced the car, first to a point around Agric Area. The man was said to have driven to Akerebiata, on the way to Sobi Barracks where he abandoned the baby in a car seat and from there made a detour back to Asa Dam Road where he went to lodge with his girlfriend.

Friends and family members continued yesterday to praise the police and other security agencies for the speed and effectiveness of the work that led to the recovery of the baby and the car.