An unidentified middle-aged man on Wednesday exchanged two siblings for bags of rice in Lagos, The Vanguard reports.
The suspect abducted the children, aged eight and thirteen, while they were returning from holiday lesson in Satellite area of Lagos.
The suspect went ahead to exchange them for two bags of rice in a shop at 63, Marwa Road, near Chemist Bus Stop.
The man told the sales girl at the shop that he would like to take two bags of rice to the mother of the children, whom he claimed owned a restaurant close-by, to ascertain whether the rice was the brand she needed.
The owner of the shop, Mrs Silverline, explained that, “he (the abductor) told my sales girl that the mother of the children needed Indian rice, but my sales girl told him that what we had was Brazilian rice and that it was good.
“Thereafter, he made a phone call to someone he claimed was the mother of the children and at the end said he would like to take the bags of rice to the woman. But my girl insisted on following him to collect the money for the bags (N40,000) should the woman agree to buy them.
“The stranger said he would ride on a motorcycle with the bags of rice, while my girl followed with the children on foot. But on reaching the purported restaurant, the owner said she never saw any one with bags of rice, neither did she admit knowing the children.
“They walked to Ijegun end of Satellite without any sight of the abductor. When we asked the children about him, they said that the abductor was not their father.”
An eyewitness, Ifeoma John, said that the biological father of the children arrived some minutes later saying that the abductor hypnotised his children.
He contacted policemen from Satellite Division, who took everyone involved to the station, from where the children were released to their parents.