My six-month-old son st0len beside sleeping mother — Father
My six-month-old son stolen beside sleeping mother — Father
More than 50 days after six-month-old Faaiz was abducted from his parents’ bedroom in Erunmu, Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State, his family is still searching for him. His father, Isiaq Taiwo, recounts to AYOOLA OLASUPO how the baby disappeared and the family’s efforts to find him
Can you take us through what happened on the night your son was abducted?
We live in Erunmu, Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State. Faaiz is my third child. The incident happened in the early hours of September 17, 2026. I was not at home at the time, but my wife was there with the children. She is not someone who sleeps deeply, but that night, she slept unusually soundly, almost as if she had been enchanted.
My wife and Faaiz were sleeping in one of the rooms in my building, which was still under construction, while my first and second children were in another room with my younger sister.
The windows of the room where my wife and Faaiz slept did not have burglar-proof bars. Sometime during the night, an unidentified person reportedly broke into the house and took Faaiz away without anyone noticing. My wife only realised he was missing later.
What steps have you taken to locate Faaiz since his abduction?
We reported the incident at Ogungbade Police Station, from where the case was transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit in Dugbe. We also contacted the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and made several efforts to publicise his disappearance. We visited two or three radio stations to announce that he was missing, hoping that someone might have information about his whereabouts.
We have also held several Islamic prayer sessions, and other people have joined us in praying for his safe return. We have exhausted every avenue available to us as parents, but sadly, none of our efforts has yielded any results so far.
Faaiz
Have officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit given you any updates on the case?
The last time we contacted them, they said they were working on it. Even if I call them now, I believe that is what they will still tell me. That is what they have been saying all along, but we have not seen any evidence of the progress they are making on the case.
Do you suspect that someone had been monitoring your family before the incident?
In fact, I did not suspect anybody. I do not have any misunderstanding with anyone. I mind my business and do not look for trouble. What I do every day as a chemist is go to my shop in the morning and return home at night. I grew up in this area, so I cannot think of anyone I might have offended. It is not as if I recently moved into the neighbourhood.
There are many people around us whose buildings are not even as developed as mine, yet nothing has happened to them. In fact, there is someone in the area who has only managed to roof one room in his entire building, and he lives there peacefully. That was what encouraged us to roof our other room, install window glass and start using it without burglar-proof bars.
What has the Community Development Association done since the incident?
They also made efforts. On the day the incident happened, some of their members accompanied me to the police station. They were questioned and later asked to leave. The security guard was also questioned, and he said he did not notice anything unusual that night.
When exactly did Faaiz’s mother realise that he was no longer by her side?
She expected the baby to show signs that he wanted to breastfeed, but that did not happen. She also woke up much later than usual that day, which was quite unusual for her.
She then started searching everywhere in the house for Faaiz. She even went to the other room where the other children were and asked my younger sister whether she had carried the baby there to sleep beside her.
My sister told her she had not, and that was when my wife realised that something was wrong. It was later discovered that the mosquito net on the window had been torn, leaving the room exposed. We never expected something like that to happen to us in our own home.
How are you coping with the situation now?
We have put our hope in God. However, we have cried countless times. We also had our second child in this same house, so we keep asking what has changed now. It is not as if we left Faaiz outside the house. He was inside the room when he was abducted. The incident happened between 2am and 3am that day. I am sure the operation would not have taken them up to 30 minutes.
It has been more than 50 days since the incident. Have you received any calls from people demanding ransom?
Someone called us on the day the incident happened and demanded N60,000. However, we doubted whether someone who had abducted a child would demand just N60,000 as ransom.
The way the man spoke that day made it seem as though he had my son with him. He said he wanted to help us because the child was in his custody. He even prayed and said he was an herbalist.
He asked us to send the money to the people who had abducted Faaiz. He also sent us the person’s bank account details, claiming that the abductors had agreed to release our son once they received the money.
After we made the payment, he did not bring my child as promised. We called him several times that day and the following day, but he did not respond. He neither changed his phone number nor concealed it when he called us.
We gave the number to the police for tracking, and they told us that it was based in Abeokuta. However, we wonder why they have been unable to arrest the person in Abeokuta. We also gave them the name on the bank account, but nothing has come out of it.
The way the man who called us described our area and house made us believe that he must be someone who knows us very well. He described my family as though he were a member of it. That made us suspect that he might be someone close to us.
How has your family been coping with the emotional and psychological toll of Faaiz’s disappearance?
It is only God who is still keeping our home together because everyone has been deeply affected by what happened. In fact, I cannot measure the extent of the damage this has caused my family.
I don’t quarrel with people, and I have a good business relationship with my customers. So, I don’t know who is doing this to us. I just believe that everything is clear to God. I want God to use the Inspector-General of Police to help us resolve this case. The man who called us collected a total of N76,000 from me, yet we did not get what he promised.
He called me again on October 6 and accused us of not caring about our son’s life because we had stopped contacting him. I told him that we had done everything he requested, but our son was still not returned. That was why we stopped calling him.
He then said he was ready to help us again and asked us to send another N30,000. At that point, I asked him to provide proof of life. I told him to make a video of my son so that I could confirm he was still alive, but he refused and insisted that I send the money.
I then pretended that the network was poor, and he stopped calling me. I have not heard from him since then.
I was also surprised by how he got the phone numbers of some people close to me. He called at least two people close to me on the day the incident happened. I do not know how he got their numbers.
I am appealing to the Inspector-General of Police to intervene in this case. The police should help me find my child and ensure that the suspect is arrested.
