POLICE PARADE 2 SUSPECTED CHILD TRAFFICKERS, RESCUE 9 CHILDREN
The Nigeria Police Force, Enugu State Command, has paraded two suspected child traffickers, alleged to have specialized in moving children from Plateau State to Portharcourt, Rivers State.
Nine children, made up of five boys and four girls between the ages of two and thirteen were rescued from the suspects.
Adressing journalists at the Command’s Headquarters in Enugu, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ahmed Abdur Rahman gave the names of the suspected tracffickers as Nwachi Ezinne Rebecca from Kogi State but married to Ebonyi State and Pastor Issac David Vou from Plateau State.
According to the Police Commissioner the suspects were intercepted with the children on fourth of this month in a luxury bus at Orba Check-point in Udenu Local Government Area of the state by soldiers on Operation Atilogwu Udo.
The Commissioner said that the army authorities, however, handed over the victims and suspects to the command for further investigation.
The Commissioner of Police, however, noted that the police was still tracking the end receiver of the trafficked children, one “Blessing’’ who allegedly ran an orphanage home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Mr. Abdur Rahman who handed over some of the children to their parents cautioned parents against bearing children that could not cater for.
According to Police Commissioner, some of the children given out to people are used as sacrificial lamb, child labour and for other immoral purposes.
He appealed to the Plateau State Government to assist in rehabilitating the rescued children.
But in an interview, one of the suspects, Mrs. Rebecca Ezinne Nwachi, denied being a child-trafficker, claiming that she handed over the children to a legal orphanage home in Elelenwa, near Port-Harcourt, Rivers State which had been in existence over ten years.
She said the orphanage was well-registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission where children of less privileged families were taken care of.
Similarly, another suspected child trafficker, Pastor David Vou pleaded innocent, claiming that he helped to gather some of the children after convincing their parents that the orphanage home would take better care of them.
Pastor Vou said he would not be involved in child trafficking as the aim was to give the children better education since their parents were very poor and that the address of the orphanage home wa verifiable.
Parents and guardians of some of the rescued children, agreed giving out the children to the orphanage home as they could not afford to take care of them properly.
Meanwhile the police said they would continue with the investigation and would prosecute anyone involved in trafficking the children.
CHRISTIAN NWANGENE