Police in Akwa Ibom State has arrested 11 persons suspected to be involved in child trafficking in the state, Punch reports.


Mr. Murtala Mani, the state Commissioner of Police, said on Friday that members of a syndicate which specialised in trafficking babies were arrested by the anti-kidnapping unit of the Nigeria Police.

He said a woman, Comfort Edem, was arrested on October 13, 2016 following intelligence information that she had been running an illegal maternity home for the purpose of trading in children.

Mani, who said this through the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Cordelia Nwawe, added that the suspects sold the trafficked children at N450,000.

He revealed that the suspected child traffickers went after pregnant teenagers and negotiated the price of the unborn children with them, and that once the babies were born, they would be given to the traffickers.


In his words,

"Information at our disposal led to the interception of a syndicate which traffic babies in Akwa Ibom. On October 13, 2016, the anti-kidnapping of the Nigeria Police arm was able to intercept a woman who owns an illegal maternity home.

"She specializes in making sure that she takes in pregnant teenagers. Once the babies are born, those babies are sold and trafficked out of Akwa Ibom. We have intercepted her; she is in here in front of you.

"As a matter of fact, the girls had reliably informed us that this is not the first time they had sold their babies at the sum of N450,000."

Mani also paraded another syndicate who sold children for N500,000. He explained that the police had been to rescue a two-month old girl who had been sold to a woman in Rivers State.

http://www.uchesdiaries.com/2016/10/11-persons-arrested-in-akwa-ibom-for.html

Child trafficking is normal in that state, that's their business.

OK

This is too bad