The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested 11 persons suspected to be involved in child trafficking in the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Murtala Mani, on Friday said that members of a syndicate which specialized in the trafficking of babies were arrested by the anti-kidnapping unit of the Police. According to him, a woman, Comfort Edem, was arrested on October 13 following information that she had been running an illegal maternity home for the purpose of trading in children.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Cordelia Nwawe who was speaking in place of the commissioner said that the suspects sold the trafficked children at N450,000.
The police revealed that the traffickers went after pregnant teenagers and negotiated the price of the unborn children with them agreeing that once the babies were born, they would be handed over to them.
The Commissioner said, “Information at our disposal led to the interception of a syndicate which traffic babies in Akwa Ibom. On October 13, 2016, the anti-kidnapping of the Nigeria Police arm was able to intercept a woman who owns an illegal maternity home.
“She specializes in making sure that she takes in pregnant teenagers. Once the babies are born, those babies are sold and trafficked out of Akwa Ibom. We have intercepted her; she is in here in front of you.
“As a matter of fact, the girls had reliably informed us that this is not the first time they had sold their babies at the sum of N450,000”.
Mani also paraded another syndicate who sold children for N500,000. He explained that the police had been to rescue a two-month old girl who had been sold to a woman in Rivers State.
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