Police arrest couple for ‘trafficking one-month-old baby’ in Anambra

The Anambra police command says a couple has been arrested for allegedly trafficking a one-month-old baby in Onitsha.

In a statement on Monday, Tochukwu Ikenga, police spokesperson in the state, said the couple was arrested at Bridgehead in Onitsha on December 17.

Ikenga said the couple was travelling in a bus with the baby when a passenger observed that the supposed mother could not breastfeed the baby.

He said the passenger reported to the police and the couple was arrested in the evening of the same day.

“The couple were travelling in a luxury bus belonging to a popular transport company with the baby when a co-passenger observed that the mother could not breastfeed the baby despite its cry for food in the course of the journey,” the statement reads.

“The good Samaritan put a call through to Anambra police on its control room hotline in Awka which then relayed the information to the police at Bridgehead in Onitsha.

“The police laid in wait for the luxury bus described and intercepted it in the evening hours. The couple and the baby were identified and brought down for questioning.

“They confessed buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for the sum of N30,000.”

He said Aderemi Adeoye, the police commissioner in the state, commended citizens for supporting the personnel with information to rescue the child.

The police spokesperson said Adeoye ordered that the baby be handed over to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution.

He added that the baby has been given to the ministry of women affairs to ensure proper care.