Police arrest 11 for child trafficking in Akwa Ibom

The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested
11 persons suspected to be involved in child
trafficking in the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Murtala
Mani, said on Friday that members of a syndicate
which specialised in trafficking babies were
arrested by the anti-kidnapping unit of the Nigeria
Police.
He said a woman, Comfort Edem, was arrested on
October 13, 2016 following intelligence information
that she had been running an illegal maternity
home for the purpose of trading in children.
Mani, who said this through the Police Public
Relations Officer in the state, Cordelia Nwawe,
added that the suspects sold the trafficked children
at N450,000.
He revealed that the suspected child traffickers
went after pregnant teenagers and negotiated the
price of the unborn children with them. He noted
that once the babies were born, they would be
given to the traffickers.
He said, “Information at our disposal led to the
interception of a syndicate which traffic babies in
Akwa Ibom. On October 13, 2016, the anti-
kidnapping of the Nigeria Police arm was able to
intercept a woman who owns an illegal maternity
home.
“She specialises in making sure that she takes in
pregnant teenagers. Once the babies are born,
those babies are sold and trafficked out of Akwa
Ibom. We have intercepted her; she is in here in
front of you.
“As a matter of fact, the girls had reliably informed
us that this is not the first time they had sold their
babies at the sum of N450,000.”
Mani also paraded another syndicate who sold
children for N500,000. He explained that the police
had been to rescue a two-month old girl who had
been sold to a woman in Rivers State.