The police command in Enugu has busted child stealing and trafficking syndicates rescuing six children and arresting 10 suspects.

The command’s spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe, said this in a statement on Saturday in Enugu.

Mr Ndukwe said the success was recorded in multiple coordinated operations that took place between June 30 and July 16.

He said that the syndicates and suspects were involved in both local and transnational child trafficking.

“Two trafficked children were rescued: Loveth Mfonobong, 16, whose name had been changed to Ifunanya Chiaha and Benjamin Alex Okon,12, renamed Udochukwu Chiaha,” said Mr Ndukwe.

He said one of those arrested confessed to buying the rescued girl in 2021 at the cost of N900,000 and the boy for N1.4 million in 2024.

Mr Ndukwe said that on July 13, police operatives from the command’s Awkunanaw Division, with Neighbourhood Watch, rescued a one-year-seven-month-old boy and detained one suspect.

The suspect was found carrying the baby and detained, while the child was rescued and reunited with his mother, the police said.

The spokesman explained that in a transnational case, on July 4, police operatives from the Emene Division detained a suspect after a report that she trafficked a 14-year-old female victim to Ghana.

“She confessed and helped police detain her male accomplice. The victim was safely rescued and reunited with her family. Both suspects were arraigned and remanded in the correctional custody,” he said.

According to him, a girl and her mother and another woman were also arrested by operatives of Ogui Division for allegedly running a child trafficking ring.

He said the girl gave birth and sold the newborn for N1.4 million in connivance with her mother and the woman they were arrested together with.

He said the Ogui Division also arrested another woman trying to steal a baby in a salon.

“The mother raised an alarm after seeing the suspect leaving with the baby in a tricycle. The suspect was apprehended and manhandled by an angry mob before she was rescued and detained by the police,” he said. 

(NAN)