The FCT Police Command on Thursday confirmed receipt of a report that three children, all siblings of the same parent disappeared from a school in Kabusa, an Abuja community adding that investigative machinery has been activated into the matter.

A spokesperson for the Command, DSP Josephine Adeh said towards this end, all the teachers in the school, alongside the proprietor, had been arrested over the matter.

Adeh said “The matter was reported to us. We have arrested all the teachers and the proprietor of the school. The case has now been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department.”

The children, Marvelous, Alex and Rehoboth Sunday, were said to have gone missing from their school, Star Child Academy, on Tuesday.

Consequently, women in the community, both young and old on Wednesday, protested at the school and the police station.

Residents of the area disclosed that the children’s disappearance became known when their mother went to pick them up from their school located around the ECWA One area of Kabusa, but they were nowhere to be found.

Efforts made by their mother, staff of the school and residents to locate them were said to have been abortive.

The incident sparked a protest from women in the community, who picketed the school and the police division in the area.

A resident said, “Up till now, we don’t know where they are; their parents and the entire community have been thrown into mourning. The family recently lost one of their children and now all of the surviving children are nowhere to be found. They are two females and one male. The first one is eight years old, the second is six years old and the last is two years old.”

The incident has reportedly created panic among residents of Kabusa community in the Federal Capital Territory over the disappearance.

A resident said, “The father of the three children is my colleague and we live in the same area. Around 1.28 pm on Tuesday, we were sitting together and having some conversation when a call from his wife came in. She said she went to the school to pick up the three children, but they were nowhere to be found. The father immediately put a call through to the owner of the school.

“The woman was not really cooperating at that moment; their dad was upset. About 20 minutes later, he left the place of work and dashed to his residence. He then reported the incident at a police station.

“Up till now, we don’t know where they are; their parents and the entire community have been thrown into mourning.

The residents, who made bonfires and barricaded the Kuje/Gwagwalada Road, appealed to the Federal Government to combat the insecurity in the area.

As a result of the barricade, vehicles were diverted through the Kuje-Airport Road to get to Gwagwalada from Kuje.

A resident, who gave his name simply as Austin, said bandits had been having a field day in the community.

According to him, the protest was caused by the abduction of three residents on Thursday.

He said, “This is getting too much. Bandits have been operating freely in our community. In the early hours of Thursday, they operated here for hours and took away two men and one woman. The residents were angry because of that and decided to protest against the abductions in the area.

“This is not the only incident; week in and week out we experience attacks by bandits in this community. Why do we have a government then if our lives and property are not secured? The government must live up to its task and provide adequate security in the community.”

[Vanguard/Punch]