Delta State Police Command has rescued twenty-three teenagers in a hotel in Ughelli, Ughelli North LGA lured into prostitution by a human trafficking and prostitution syndicate.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, in a statement, today, Friday, July 19, said the rescue effort followed a tip-off on the activities of a suspect who is at large.
The police identified the prime suspect simply as Chinyere.
Edafe said Chinyere specialises in trafficking women from the South East to Delta state for prostitution, adding that the suspect lures the women by deceiving them with job offers of sales girls.
He said the police operatives located one of the victims who revealed the illegal activities of the prime suspect now at large.
According to the statement, the victim who hails from Abia State said Chinyere deceived her parents that she would be employed as sales girls in a bar with a salary of N30,000 monthly.
Edafe, quoting the victim, said when she in the company of two other girls got to Ughelli, she saw several nude girls and was informed of the nature of the job which she rejected and was thrown out of the hotel.
He said police operatives stormed Big Dafe Hotel by Ughelli/ Patani road and arrested one Chioma Edafe ‘f’ 36yrs of Umuogbezea Community in Imo State who runs the hotel and thirty-five others among which twenty-three are all teenagers.
He said a manhunt for the main suspect Chinyere is ongoing.
Part of the statement reads, “On 15/7/2024, acting on credible information received by the Command on the activities of one Chinyere (surname unknown) who specialises in trafficking women from the East and brings them to Ughelli Delta State for prostitution. Intelligence further revealed that she lures them by telling them that they are coming to Delta State to work as a sales girl in a restaurant.
“The Commissioner of Police Delta State CP Abaniwonda Olufemi who has zero tolerance for human/child trafficking detailed the DPO Ekpan CSP Aliyu Shaba to immediately work on the gathered intelligence and ensure that the hotel is located and the suspect arrested. “Consequently, on 15/07/2024 at about 1900hrs, one of the victims (name withheld) was located and she revealed the illegal activities of the said suspect Chinyere ‘f’ surname unknown currently at large.”
“She further stated that the suspect deceived her parents to follow her down to Delta State from Abia State to be a sales girl in a bar with a salary of #30,000 monthly, however on 12/07/2024, she and two other young girls followed the suspect down to a town she later understood to be Ughelli but on getting to their final destination, they saw other teenagers. They were naked and were informed that it was prostitution they were brought for which they declined and as a result, they were immediately thrown out of the hotel.”
