Couple arrested for trafficking one-month-old baby from Lagos to Onitsha

By Fatai Kasali

A couple suspected to be trafficking a one- month old baby from Lagos to Onitsha, has been arrested by the Anambra State Police Command on Tuesday.

This was contained in a statement issued to the press in Onitsha on Tuesday by the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga,

The Police public relation officer said that the interception was made at Bridgehead in Onitsha on Sunday.

According to him, a co-passenger who was traveling with the couple in a popular luxury bus observed that the mother could not breastfeed the baby despite its cry for food during 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 hours.

“The couple and the baby were identified and brought down for questioning,” he said.

He noted that she confessed buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for N30,000.

Reacting to the incident, the Commissioner of Police, Aderemi Adeoye, thanked the citizen for his humane concern in giving the information that led to the rescue of the child.

The Police public relation officer in the state said that Mr Adeoye commended the police operatives for their vigilance and dedication to duty.

He said that the commissioner directed that the couple be handed to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons for further investigation and prosecution.

The Police Commissioner also directed that the couple be handed to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons for further investigation and prosecution.

Mr Ikenga said that the baby had been handed over to the state Ministry of Women Affairs for care pending investigation.