Police intercept couple trafficking one-month-old baby in Anambra

The Anambra Police Command said it has arrested a couple, suspected of trafficking a one-month-old baby from Lagos to Onitsha.

DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, Public Relations Officer of the command in a statement on Tuesday, said the interception was made at Bridgehead in Onitsha on Sunday.

According to him, the couple was 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 during the journey.

The statement said following the complaint, the police lay in wait for the luxury bus and intercepted it in the evening hours. The couple and the baby were identified and brought down for questioning

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

He further said that the Commissioner of Police, Aderemi Adeoye, thanked the public-spirited citizen for his humane concern in giving the information that led to the rescue of the child.

He stressed that Adeoye commended the police operatives for their vigilance and dedication to duty.

The Commissioner of the Police then directed that the couple be handed over to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution.

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