Operatives of the Akwa Ibom State Police command have busted a syndicate specializing in stealing and trading off innocent children for cash, recovering no fewer than three stolen children in the sting operation.
Commissioner of Police (CP), Olatoye Durosinmi, who stated this on Wednesday in Uyo, the state capital during a press briefing said the child theft syndicate, and a father who raped his six – year-old daughter, were among the 96 criminal suspects arrested between July and August 2023.
Durosinmi stated that the child theft syndicate deceived the mother of the children, one Utibeabasi Monday Enang, stole her two children, ages three and five, who were sold in Asaba, Delta state, while the third child was recovered in Rivers state.
According to the CP, the mother of the stolen children was almost beaten to death when she demanded for her children from the suspect and had to escape for her life.
He said: “Within July and August, we have consolidated on our gains of a peaceful Akwa Ibom by arresting 96 criminal elements within the state for the offences of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, defilement, cultism, etc and recovered arms and ammunition.
“On the 9th August, 2023, Operatives of Anti-Child Theft of the Command, in a rigorous investigation arrested one Peace Patrick Paul, who deceived one Utibeabasi Monday Enang, both of Obot Akara L.G.Area and stole her two children, ages 3 and 5 in the month of May, 2023.
“The said Peace Patrick Paul sold the two children to one Mary Eunice in Aba, Abia State who in turn sold them to one Bella Uko in Asaba, Delta State.
“Similarly, one Alayodi Paul Onyekwere of Abroma, Rivers State was arrested for stealing an 11-year-old daughter of one Emmanuel Macauley Daniel of Ikot Ikot Village in Obot Akara L.G.Area.
“Suspect alleged to have been sent by her grandmother to steal the child which she led Operatives to recover from Rivers State.”
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