The Delta State Police Command has launched an investigation into the abduction of four children in the Ogwashi Uku community, Aniocha South Local Council, over the weekend.

Spokesperson for the command, SP Bright Edafe, confirmed the incident and said detectives are working to uncover the circumstances surrounding the children’s sudden disappearance.

The missing children include six-year-old Ebube Nwafido and her three-year-old sister, Miracle, as well as Chimanda, aged seven, and Excel, also known as Tinubu, aged five. While Ebube and Miracle are siblings, the other two girls are from a different family.

The Guardian learnt that the children were allegedly lured away on Friday by three women who had secured temporary accommodation in Umuokwe quarters earlier in the week. According to sources, the women approached the children under the guise of buying them biscuits from a popular supermarket in the area.

Residents suspect the women planned the act days before the abduction. One of the women had reportedly asked the children’s mother, Mrs Bose Nwafido, for help in finding a room to rent. Narrating her encounter, Mrs Nwafido said, “It was last Monday they came to me for accommodation. I pointed them to a direction, and shortly after, one returned, saying she had a stomach ache from drinking Pepsi and zobo and asked to use our toilet.”

Mrs Nwafido said she led the woman to the back of their compound where she defecated in a bush. She later said she was going to withdraw money from a POS to pay for the accommodation. The woman returned while Mrs Nwafido was away at the market and began interacting with the children, including her 10-year-old son, Ifechukwude.

On Friday morning, Mrs Nwafido said she left the children at home while attending a programme, instructing them to play within the compound. “By noon, some children came back saying, ‘Aunty wants to buy biscuits for us’. That was how my children followed them to their apartment,” she said.

When the children were not seen around the compound for hours, neighbours grew concerned.

A visit to the women’s apartment revealed the room was empty, and both the women and the children were gone.

The children’s father, Kingsley Nwafido, said the family was devastated by the incident and pleaded for their safe return. “We are in shock. We just want our children back,” he said.