Operatives of the Nigerian Police Force in Anambra have successfully arrested a couple involved in the trafficking of a one-month-old baby.
Reports reveal that the couple had purchased the infant from its mother in the Ajah area of Lagos State for a meagre sum of N30,000.
The identities of the couple remain undisclosed, but they were apprehended by police operatives at the Onitsha end of the Niger Bridgehead while travelling in a luxury bus with the baby on Sunday.
Confirming the incident, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ikenga Tochukwu, the Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Anambra State Police Command, disclosed that the police promptly rescued the baby and handed the child over to the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Children Welfare for proper care.
Tochukwu further stated that the couple has been transferred to the state command of the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations.
According to the police spokesperson, the discovery and subsequent arrest came about when a fellow passenger in the luxury bus alerted the police via the command’s Control Room hotline. The informant expressed suspicions that the couple was carrying a baby who might not belong to them.
He stated that the informant informed the police command that he noticed that throughout their journey from Lagos, the baby was crying for food, but, that the woman carrying it could not breastfeed it.
He added, “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 hours. 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.”
The Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, commended the vigilant citizen whose alertness and concern facilitated the rescue of the child. He also praised the dedication and vigilance displayed by the police operatives in swiftly addressing the situation.
