An official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Steven Asibi, tells AYOOLA OLASUPO how his heavily pregnant wife was forced into labour by kidnappers who abducted her and took the newborn baby away

Where are you from?

I am from Ogoloma community in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, and I work with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Rivers State Command.

What does your wife do for a living?

She is a teacher at a private school.

How many children did you have before the incident happened?

We had one but two died; a set of twins.

When was the last time you or anyone in the household had direct contact with your wife, Dorathy, before she went missing?

I used to observe one day off, and one day on at my workplace. I came home on Tuesday night and left her on Thursday morning (February 6, 2025). But we chatted on Friday afternoon, and she was just praising and appreciating me for being her husband and how expectant she was. She said we would soon smile, and I said Amen to that.

That was the last time we had a call, chat, or communication. When I closed around 7:43 pm and was on my way home, I started calling her. After several calls without a response, I called my boy at home and asked about his mum. The boy told me that his mum went out and had just told him, “She is coming.” He said she took only her phone and charger.

When did that happen?

It was on Friday, February 7, 2025. After speaking with my son, when I got home, I asked him when she left the house, and he said it was some minutes to 3 pm.

What happened next?

I was concerned about why her line was not connecting, so I went outside to ask our neighbours because whenever she takes a stroll, she sometimes goes to them. I went to them to find out. When I got to the junction, I met my elder brother’s wife, who is also a neighbour. She stays on the same street.

I told her that it was my wife’s whereabouts that brought me out, and she said she saw my wife at UPE junction. I know her friend sells fruits along the way. So, I used that opportunity to take a walk, thinking she must have taken a stroll, just as I always advise her. When I got to UPE junction, I met one of my other neighbours who sells fruits. I greeted her, and she asked why I came to the junction.

I told her I was looking for my wife, and she said she had earlier seen my wife when she sought shelter in their backyard after alighting from a tricycle while it rained. She said the people selling fruits there gave her a chair to sit on. The woman said my wife left and told her that she wanted to go somewhere as soon as it stopped raining.

She saw her cross the road but didn’t know when she boarded a vehicle. At that point, I started asking myself, ‘Where is this woman?’ So, I went to see one of her friends, but she also said she hadn’t seen her. I became worried and called my elder sister, who stays in our compound, and she said she left her in the house in the morning.

What other information did she give you?

She said she had told her younger one that she was not feeling well and wanted to go to the hospital. We were in the vehicle, contemplating the issue. Since she mentioned the hospital, I said we should go to where she usually went for a massage; maybe we’d find her there. We got there, and the lady at the place said she hadn’t seen her; we drove down to the hospital where she registered.

At the hospital, we checked the labour ward, emergency rooms, maternity, and ante-natal wards, and all the wards to see if any pregnant person had been brought there, but to no avail. When we couldn’t find her, we drove out to other health centres around to look for her there.

Did you report to the police that your wife was missing?

After 24 hours, I reported the issue to the Borokiri Police Division. I went there with my elder sister and some of our neighbours. We were asked to go home, and that if by Monday we didn’t hear anything, we should come back with her picture so that they could raise the signal and send it to the Police Public Relations Office for further announcement.

I did that on Monday, but there was no trace, and no information until Tuesday when a signal was sent. I even went to the PPRO’s office. My sister, who is a reporter, was also there, and she received all the necessary information before leaving for work that day.

When and how was she released?

By Wednesday, I went to church and prayed with my spiritual father, and he said, ‘Just go, you will see testimony.’ At about 9:50 pm, I received a call. It was from an unknown number. As soon as I picked up, I heard a voice saying, ‘Hello, hello, honey.’ Before I could ask questions, the phone was taken by a male voice, saying, ‘We are giving you 24 hours to come forward with N24m as ransom.’

What did you say after hearing that?

I replied to the person, saying, ‘You don’t give a child of God such orders. You can’t intimidate a child of God with ransom. So, if that ransom is your problem, sorry, you will not have it. If you want to keep her, do so, but you will not get a dime. And if it is still the God I’m serving, you will get the answer to what you are asking for.’

The person then switched off the phone. After that, I went to my father-in-law and told him about it. He said I should not worry. So, I went to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit at Mini Okoro Police Division, along Old Aba Road, to report the matter since it had gotten to that point. I went there to notify them of what was going on.

They (personnel of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit) collected the number that called me and said they would be tracking it and that we should keep our fingers crossed. When I finished with that, I came back and went to my workplace. Around 7 pm, a call came in, saying, ‘Can you please come and pick me up?’ I then asked, ‘Where are you?’ She said she did not know. I asked her to give the phone to the person who lent it to her to call me.

What happened thereafter?

She gave the man the phone, and I informed him that the woman was my wife and that we had been looking for her. I asked for her location, and the man mentioned D-Young junction. So, I told him we were coming and that he should let her remain around there. Immediately, I called the PPRO to inform her, and she asked me to call the Anti-Kidnapping Unit.

I called the 2iC of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, and he said I should come to Rumuokoro Police Station so he could give me backup. We went there with their official Toyota Hilux, fully armed. Some personnel went down to D-Young junction. That was when we finally saw her. When I got there, it was as if she was in a trance of some sort. She didn’t notice anyone was around but was looking at the road until I tapped her. It was even close to a police checkpoint, and the police there saw us.

Was anybody else with her?

There was nobody there where she sat, but it was a major road. She was sitting in front of a container where they sell cement.

Was she blindfolded?

No, at that moment when we got there, she wasn’t blindfolded. She just sat there like someone who was in a trance. Immediately, the policemen saw me, and I told them she was my wife. They said they saw her when she came down from a tricycle, but they were just looking at her because she appeared like a lunatic.

She was completely white from head to toe, and her hair and clothes were very dirty. I told the policemen she was kidnapped. I took her into the vehicle, and we left. After that, the 2iC (second-in-command) came and saw her. Although she was trying to talk, the man said we shouldn’t stress her and advised we should take her to a hospital until she got better so he could have a more detailed discussion with her and to know what happened. Currently, she’s receiving treatment at the hospital.

Has she told you anything after she was found?

The only thing she could say was how she got to the junction and didn’t want to take public transport but decided to take a drop. She told the driver her destination, and the man said the other woman in the vehicle was going the same way and would drop before her (my wife). The driver promised to drop my wife at her destination.

After they agreed on the price, she entered the vehicle, and that was the last she could remember. By the time she realised herself, she found herself in the boot of a car, blindfolded. We asked if she could picture the environment, but she said she noticed that the place was noisy and only heard birds chirping.

How many days did she spend in captivity?

That should be five days: from Friday to Wednesday.

Is it true that she was forced to deliver her nine-month-old pregnancy?

It is true because the medical report shows that she had a forced inducement.

Did the kidnappers drug her?

She said the kidnappers injected her on her left hand.

Is it true that the baby was taken away from her?

We didn’t see her with anything. She was just alone. So, maybe it was how I confronted them when they were demanding the ransom that made them take the baby away.

After the discovery at the hospital, have you updated the police about the induced labour and the missing baby?

Yes, we have done that.

What are the police doing about the matter?

They are still investigating it because we gave them all the information, including the number that called me on that Wednesday. So, the 2iC of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit is also following up.

Is your wife responding to treatment at the hospital?

Yes, she is responding to treatment, compared to when we first picked her up from the road. I haven’t spoken to her yet, but they said that gradually, she’s coming back to normal.

Do you suspect that someone may have been monitoring the progress of her pregnancy before she was kidnapped?

From the look of things, I may point to that because nothing had happened until her due month. What happened is enough to make someone suspicious.

How did her family react when they heard about it?

With her release, everybody was thanking God that she came back alive, but as humans, we still feel bad that the story would have been more serious and more interesting if my wife had come back with the baby.

From the incident, do you suspect that your wife’s kidnappers are ritual killers?

There is nothing that cannot happen anyway. We’ve heard about a lot of things that they do, but based on my personality, I don’t just look at things anyhow and just conclude. Before it got to this point, I’d been to my church, where my father in the Lord and I knelt to pray, and we made some decrees on the altar.

I’ve also met about two or three ministers of God that I know and I’m aware of the kind of grace they have. They prayed with me and told me that before the end of the day, I would receive a call. So, it was after the prayer that the whole thing happened. I don’t want to just look at it from the physical angle. We prayed more about it because man could lie.

Why didn’t you negotiate with the kidnappers when they asked for N24m ransom?

For me, there are some things that I should not pamper, just like I used to tell my colleague. So, when the kidnapper called, I said, ‘Look, you cannot threaten a child of God with that; you cannot just call me and start giving me conditions with just 24 hours to bring money.’

I told him unless the God I serve is dead, that is when he would get the money. I told him if he wanted to keep them (mother and child), he should, but for me, I would not pay a dime to them.

What kind of punishment do you want your wife’s kidnappers to face?

They have told them it is blood for blood and altar versus altar. Whatever they hold, they should hold on to it. I’m holding on to the God who created and gave me the grace to serve him. So, if they take one, they will lose 20, unless the God I serve who created everything does not know. They will soon receive their reward.