Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested suspects who specialise in trafficking women and teenage girls into prostitution and rescued victims.

In a press release on Thursday, the command’s public relations officer, Bright Edafe, explained that the suspects lured their victims from South-East Nigeria into the state.

Mr Edafe revealed that the command acted on credible information received on July 15, 2024, about “the activities of one Chinyere (surname unknown), who specialises in trafficking women from the east and brings them to Ughelli, Delta State for prostitution.”

The police spokesperson explained that the suspect “lures them by telling them that they are coming to Delta State to work as a sales girl in a restaurant.”

According to the statement, the state commissioner of police, Abaniwonda Olufemi, directed the DPO of the Ekpan Division, CSP Aliyu Shaba, to work on the intelligence to locate the hotel and arrest the suspect.

“Consequently, on 15/07/2024 at about 1900hrs, one of the victims (name withheld), was located, and she revealed the illegal activities of the said suspect Chinyere ‘f’ surname unknown currently at large,” it stated.

The victim was quoted to have stated that “the suspect deceived her parents to follow her down to Delta State from Abia State to be a sales girl in a bar with a salary of #30,000 monthly.”

“However, on 12/07/2024, she and two other young girls followed the suspect down to a town she later understood to be Ughelli, but on getting to their final destination, they saw other teenagers.

“They were naked and were informed that it was prostitution they were brought for, which they declined, and as a result, they were immediately thrown out of the hotel,” the police spokesman said.

Mr Edafe said after the revelation by the victim, “a combined team of surveillance stormed the hotel  ‘Big Dafe Hotel’ by Ughelli/Patani Road, and arrested one Chioma Edafe ‘f’ 36yrs of Umuogbezea community in Imo State, who runs the hotel and thirty-five others, among which twenty-three are all teenagers.”

Stating that the police are on a serious manhunt for the main suspect, Ms Chinyere, Mr Edafe advised the public to reach the command by either reporting to the DPO in their area or calling the control room in cases of distress.