Sunday Trust gathered last night that the child, called Al-Amin, was kidnapped at the Apo Zone D residence of the Aminus, and that the kidnappers were asking for N20 million ransom from the baby’s parents.

The abducted baby is the first child of Air Commodore Adamu after over 10 years of marriage. The commander of the presidential aircraft fleet is at present in Saudi Arabia with the president who has been in that country for over 50 days now on medical grounds.

Our reporter gathered that the Aminus, who maintain two residences in Abuja, one at the Niger Barracks, Asokoro, and the other at Apo area of the city, were at the latter to clean-up the house when the kidnappers struck.

When Sunday Trust visited their residence last night, there was a crowd of sympathisers, including family friends who were there to console with the family. The whole street near the house was packed with cars of people who were there to comfort the family. Also visibly present were security operatives. In the sad atmosphere, sympathisers prayed that the child should be recovered alive.

Jubilation broke out when at about 10.30 pm a call came through that Habiba Aminu, mother of the baby who had gone to deliver what was believed to be some amount of money to a rendezvous point with the kidnappers, had got the baby back.

With the involvement of the police and other security agencies in the operation, it was unclear yesterday night if a ransom was exchanged for the baby.

Earlier Sunday Trust was able to piece together some details about the 4-month-old baby kidnap saga.

Narrating how the incident occurred, a member of the family, who does not want to be named, said the kidnappers, who posed like members of the household, abducted the baby on Saturday afternoon.

“They came in a Black Peugeot 505 Saloon car with no licence plates,” the source said, adding that “those in the house before their arrival thought they were members of the family.”

However, the atmosphere changed when the kidnappers brought out guns and demanded for the “money in a black bag,” which they claimed Air Commodore Adamu’s wife had taken to the house earlier in the day.

When those the kidnappers met could not produce the money, the assailants snatched the baby and sought the mobile telephone number of the baby’s nanny before locking her and another person in the house and leaving.

The family suspected that it may be an insider job, when instead of calling the nanny, the kidnappers called the Air Commodore’s wife, and demanded for a N20 million ransom, if the family wanted baby Al-Amin back.

Sunday Trust gathered that the woman, who had gone to a salon to dress her hair, had asked the family’s driver to go and bring the baby’s nanny to the Apo Legislative Quarters residence of the family to take care of the baby. The woman was still at the salon when the child was taken away.

However, the Divisional Police Officer of Garki Police Station, Mr Tony Olofu, a Chief Superintendent of Police, told our reporter that the case was reported to his division and that officers were on the trail of the kidnappers. At about 10.30pm, the police DPO confirmed that the baby had been recovered at a location he would not want to disclose to the press. Also, he would not confirm if the family or government paid ransom to the kidnappers before Al-Amin was abandoned at the location from where he was recovered.

The DPO said, his officers were yet to make any arrest, but were still investigating to crime to ensure that the kidnappers are brought to book. Meanwhile, gunmen have demanded a ransom of £1.2 million for the releaseof three Britons and a Colombian abducted last week, the police have said. According to police spokesperson Rita Inoma Abbey, “the kidnappers have asked for payment of N300 million before the men can be released,” adding that the kidnappers made the demand through a phone call to a relation of one of the kidnapped foreigners.

“The Rivers State police command has promised a reward of two million naira to anybody who can provide any information that can lead to the release of these foreigners,” Abbey said. The four -- contract workers for the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell -- were abducted on Tuesday between the oil city of Port Harcourt and nearby Aba in Abia state.

The gunmen shot dead the foreigners’ police escort and wounded their driver during the attack.

Police spokesman in Abia state Ali Okechukwu also told journalists that the police command in the state had not yet established contacts with either the abductors or the foreigners.

“We have no contacts yet with either the kidnappers or the foreigners. The state police commissioner, Jonathan Johnson, has made a passionate appeal to the abductors to release the foreigners unharmed in order not to jeopardise relations between their countries and Nigeria,” he told AFP.