The Anambra State Police Command says it has operatives have arrested a couple trafficking a one-month-old Baby into Anambra State from Lagos.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Tochukwu Ikenga, who made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday, said the couple confessed to buying the child for N30,000.
According to Ikenga, the couple was arrested at Bridgehead Onitsha, while travelling into Anambra from Lagos, after a tip off by a fellow passenger.
The press release said: “The interception was made at Bridgehead in Onitsha on 17th December, 2023.
“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 buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for the sum of N30,000.”
The Anambra Police spokesperson, expressed the appreciation of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye to the public spirited citizen for his concern and for giving the information that led to the rescue of the child.
He added that the CP has directed that the couple be handed to National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution, while the Baby has been handed to the Ministry of Women Affairs to be taken care of by the State Government.
