The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in Akwa Ibom State, has busted a human trafficking syndicate, specialising in kidnapping of minors and selling them to willing buyers outside the State.
The zonal head in-charge of Akwa Ibom State office of NAPTIP, Tina Ugwu, speaking in an interview with our correspondent ui Uyo, the state capital, said no fewer than 12 children between the age bracket of three and nine were rescued from their abductors with three suspects arrested during the raid on their camp along Calabar-Itu Road in Itu local government area of the State.
She said the raid was jointly carried out by NAPTIP intelligence and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), following a tip-off.
According to her, NAPTIP intelligence officials were on the trail of another six-year-old girl sold by the syndicate to someone in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, who later sold her to another buyer in Imo State, forcing the agency to spread its dragnet to the two States including the neighbouring Abia State.
Besides, Ugwu said her men were on the hunt for other suspected traffickers in the ring, who seized a new-born baby from the mother and sold to buyers, adding that two suspects in her custody along with the mother were already volunteering information on the crime.
“Two of the recovered victims were sold outrightly and we are yet to recover the six-year-old girl sold to somebody in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, who later sold her to another person in Imo State.
“My men have gone to Rivers State to effect arrest of the suspect, and my men are still on the trail of the Imo suspect including Abia, because they are virtually in all States.
“The operation is ongoing and we don’t want to jeopardise our investigations,” she said, assuring that the suspects would be subjected to the regime of diligent prosecution and eventual punishment at the end of investigations.
She added that pictures of the suspects, except the minors, would only be allowed to be taken at the end their investigations.
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