The long arms of the law caught up with some suspected child traffickers recently, as they were picked up by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Delta State Police Command.
According to the State Commissioner of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, five children were rescued from the group which operates across many states in the country including Delta, River, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Anambra.
Speaking to The Punch, Usman said: “When we heard about the inter-state human and child trafficking syndicate cell in Asaba, SARS operatives arrested the gang leader of the group.
“The suspect and her husband confessed to the crime and led the officers to their different hideouts in Anambra, Akwa-Ibom and Cross Rivers state.”
Some members of the group denied being traffickers, attributing their activities to a desire to help poor mothers who couldn’t take care of their children by arranging for wealthy couples in need of children to come and buy them.
“We were just helping out some persons who are in need.
“We are not human traffickers even though we make money from it.
“The mothers of the babies wanted to throw them away so we came to assist these young girls so that they would not throw away the babies or kill them,” Patience Okon, one of the suspects, said.
An un-named suspect said many of them were nurses and health professionals, stating that they usually sold children between N250,000 and N500,000 and adults for N1 million.