The owner of Happy Home Orphanage, located in Asaba, Delta State, Mr. Ogugua Christopher, has been arraigned before a Kano State High Court over allegations of kidnapping and concealing two minors abducted from Kano State.
Christopher was arraigned alongside two other suspects — Hauwa Abubakar and Nkechi Odlyne — on a four-count charge bordering on kidnapping and wrongful concealment of children. All defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to the prosecution counsel, Ms. Khadija Aliyu-Umar, the offences were allegedly committed between May 1 and June 21, 2016, in the Kawo and Tishama Hotoro Quarters of Kano. She told the court that the first defendant, Christopher, allegedly abducted four-year-old Ibrahim Nura and four-year-old Maryam Suleiman at different times and concealed them in his orphanage in Asaba.
Aliyu-Umar explained that the prosecution had originally filed a 15-count charge, which was later amended to four counts, in line with Sections 273 and 277 of the Penal Code Law of Kano State.
Defence counsel, Mr. H. M. Nwoye, applied for bail on behalf of the defendants and requested that the prosecution provide all necessary case documents to the defence team before the next court session.
Presiding Judge, Justice Amina Adamu-Aliyu, ordered that the first defendant, Ogugua Christopher, be remanded in a correctional facility, and directed the prosecution to furnish the defence with all relevant documents. The matter was adjourned until November 12, 2025, for a substantive hearing.
Meanwhile, Suleiman Muhammad, a senior intelligence officer with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), informed the court that efforts were ongoing to apprehend the two other defendants who were absent during the hearing.
The case reportedly stemmed from a 2022 petition filed by the Protection Against Abduction and Trafficking of Our Children (PATAMOC) to NAPTIP, which highlighted the disappearance of over 600 children from Kano since 2010, out of which only eight have been rescued so far.
