In a significant breakthrough, the Anambra State Police have arrested a couple involved in the trafficking of a one-month-old baby from Lagos to Anambra. The couple admitted to purchasing the child for N30,000, leading to their apprehension at Bridgehead Onitsha. The arrest was made following a tip-off from a vigilant fellow passenger.
According to DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the spokesperson for the State Police Command, the interception occurred at Bridgehead in Onitsha on December 17, 2023. The couple was traveling in a luxury bus owned by a well-known transport company, accompanied by the infant. A concerned co-passenger noticed the baby’s distressed cries for food and the mother’s inability to breastfeed, prompting a call to the Anambra Police Control Room hotline in Awka.
Ikenga explained, “The police laid 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. They confessed to buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos, for the sum of N30,000.”
Commending the public-spirited citizen for their vigilance, Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, expressed gratitude and directed that the couple be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution. The baby has been placed in the care of the Ministry of Women Affairs under the supervision of the State Government.