TheCable

The police criminal investigations department (CID) in Abuja detained one Chidi Ohaegbu who accused his wife of “plotting to kidnap” their two children.

The man was arrested and detained on Monday following his prolonged case with Nkeiruka Ohaegbu, his wife whom he accused of plotting to kidnap their children and take them to the United States where she is based.

Chike Adaka, his lawyer, told TheCable that the man was arraigned before the magistrate’s court in Wuse, Abuja, on Tuesday over allegations bothering on giving false information to the police about the whereabouts of the children.

But at the sitting, the magistrate was said to have berated the police for their involvement in the “family affair” before granting the man bail.

In an interview with TheCable, Ohaegbu said the wife has been allegedly planning to “illegally bring our children” — both aged eight and five — to the United States despite his position against such move.

He said since June 2019, the two children were “taken away from me” and have been with Nneka Ogbuehi, one of the wife’s relatives, in preparation for taking them abroad.

TheCable was unable to reach the wife but Ogbuehi denied the man’s allegations when contacted on Tuesday.

She accused the man of lying against her and his wife, adding that the police are handling the case.

‘HOW MY WIFE IS PLOTTING TO KIDNAP OUR CHILDREN’

In a recent petition to the inspector general of police, Ohaegbu alleged that the wife started plotting to take the children abroad after he refused to let her travel with them in 2019.

In the petition, he  claimed that the wife that “Mrs. Nkeiruka  Ohaegbu, Ms Chika Erinne and Mr. Obiora Erinne all conspired amongst themselves to abduct his two children under the guise of a sham police investigation, and are currently keeping the children in an unknown location and away from our client, their biological father, with the intention of smuggling and trafficking them out of Nigeria.”

The petition said the couple have been living together in Abuja until 2012 and 2014 when the wife travelled to the US to give birth.

It, however, added that she travelled to the US again in 2015 and “refused to return to Nigeria and remained there with the children until their eventual return in May 2019.”

“As soon as our client’s now estranged wife returned to Nigeria in 2019 with the children, our client made it very clear to her that he does not appreciate such a situation where his family will not be staying together under one roof, here in Nigeria, and consequently informed his now estranged wife that he would not consent to her returning to the USA either alone, as his wife, or with the children in any capacity.” the petition read.

The man said he collected the children’s international passports and travel documents, after which the wife sought the intervention of the gender unit of the force criminal investigations department at the police headquarters.

He alleged that the police unit “used their powers in a most reckless, malicious and abusive manner to forcefully retrieve” the documents and “forcefully took our client’s children away from him for the purpose of handling them over to the wife so that she could perfect her plot of illegally taking our client’s children outside the country against our client’s wish.”

The police was also said to have arrested the man and detained him for eight days until he released the children.

“On the day our client’s children and international passport/travel documents were produced at the gender unit office, the trio of Mrs Nkeiruka  Ohaegbu, Ms Chika Erinne and Mr. Obiora Erinne with the aid and connivance of the gender unit officers, took hold of the children and absconded with them to an unknown location,” the petition said.

The man proceeded to seek a court action after which he was able to retrieve the children’s travel documents he has “neither seen nor heard from his children and does not know with who or where they are.”

“They took my children since June 2019 and I have not seen them since then,” he said, adding: “It is the police that are spearheading it despite the court order restraining them from arresting me and declaring that their involvement in the matter is illegal.”

Both Obiora and Chika denied the allegations when contacted by TheCable on Tuesday.

“When people have issues in marriage, that does not mean people should be dragging others names in the mud,” Obiora said.

Chika, on the other hand, said she was unaware of the matter, adding:”I don’t know what you are talking about.”

At the time of filing this report, the gender unit at the police headquarters had not responded to TheCable’s inquiry on the issue.