•CP Adeoye
The Anambra State Police Command said it has arrested a couple trafficking a one-month-old baby from Lagos.
According to a statement issued today by the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the interception was made at the River Niger Bridgehead in Onitsha on December 17, 2023.
Although the couple’s identity was not revealed, Ikenga said they were travelling in a luxury bus belonging to a popular transport company.
The statement reads, “The couple were travelling in a luxury bus belonging to a popular transport company with the baby when a co-passenger observed that the mother could not breastfeed the baby despite its cry for food in the course of the journey.
“The good Samaritan put a call through to Anambra Police on its control room hotline in Awka which then relayed the information to the police at Bridgehead in Onitsha.
“The police laid in wait for the luxury bus described and intercepted it in the evening. The couple and the baby were identified and brought down for questioning.
“They confessed to buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for the sum of N30,000.”
He added that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, thanked the public-spirited citizen for his concern in giving the information that led to the rescue of the child, while also commending police operatives for their vigilance and dedication to duty.
“The CP has directed that the couple be handed to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons for further investigation and prosecution.
“Meanwhile the baby has been handed over to the Ministry of Women Affairs for care by the state government,” the statement added.
