6-Month-Old Nigerian Baby Kidnapped In Joburg Found Unharmed, Kidnappers Arrested

Revelation Jones

The Joneses

  The six-month-old baby boy, Revelation Jones,(above) kidnapped from his parents' home in Bezuidenhout Valley, Johannesburg, was found safe on Thursday, Gauteng police said.

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The child was “found in good health in Fordsburg”, Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said.

Police arrested the Pakistani couple who allegedly kidnapped him and allegedly tried to slit his nanny's throat on Tuesday. The couple had rented a room in the family's house. Dlamini said the couple would face charges of kidnapping and attempted murder when they appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court within 48 hours. Reports say the police found the couple following a tip-off from the public. The nanny was recovering in hospital. 

Earlier on Thursday, Dlamini said: “The father received an sms late yesterday (Wednesday) saying that they (the kidnappers) were demanding R100 000 for the baby”. The couple had three children of their own, and were apparently expecting a fourth. The father, Ifeanyi Jones, had on Thursday pleaded with the couple to return his child. “Please bring my son back. You say you are Christian, and this baby has done nothing to you.”

Revelation Jones had, on Tuesday January 8, been kidnapped by his parents' neighbours, the Pakistanis. The couple, who have three children of their own,  allegedly attacked Revelation's nanny, trying to kill her by slitting her throat with a sharp object and leaving her for dead and also locked up a six year old girl in the house, as they took the baby.

The father of the abducted baby had said that for several hours he and his wife Khanyisile phoned the nanny and the house, and no one had picked up the phone. The Nanny’s husband, Daniel Kanda, said his wife had told him the attack had taken place early in the morning. She was carrying the baby when the couple attacked her. “They wrestled as the couple was trying to pull the baby from her; until she fell to the ground, and (the couple) started attacking her. They were attacking her with shoes. The man tied a rope around her neck, that is when she collapsed,” he said.

During the attack, Jones’ daughter said she and the tenants’ three children hid under a chair in one of the rooms. She told her father that when the wife noticed her watching them, she grabbed a pillow, pressed it against her face and pushed her into her parents’ room, locking the door. “She saw them carry out her brother and lock the door,” said Jones. Kanda was taken to hospital, where she is still  in a critical condition, with head injuries.

The tenants moved into the house on 5 December, last year. The husband, who only gave his name as Bobby, told Jones that the family had come from Durban. They had been staying at a nearby hotel, but said it had become expensive. At the end of the month, the couple said they didn’t have enough money to pay the rent and asked for a few days’ grace.

Last week, the Joneses became suspicious when they noticed that something had been added to their food that was cooking on the stove. They later gave the food to the family, who they then discovered had dumped it in the garden. Jones suspected that they might have poisoned the food. “I think now that their motive was to come and do harm,” he said.