The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in Akwa Ibom State has busted a human trafficking syndicate that specialised in kidnapping minors and selling them outside the state.
The zonal head in-charge of the agency in the state, Tina Ugwu, in an interview with our correspondent yesterday in Uyo, said no fewer than 12 children between three and nine years were rescued with three suspects arrested during a raid of the camp along Calabar-Itu road in Itu local government area of the state.
She said the raid was jointly carried out by NAPTIP and the civil defense corps 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 a customer in Port Harcourt who later sold her to another buyer in Imo State, forcing the agency to spread its dragnet to those states including the neighbouring Abia.
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 volunteering information on the crime.
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