Ondo State Police Command agents have apprehended a three-person syndicate that specialises in child trafficking and theft.
Following a report of a missing child at the Okuta Elerin-Nla Police Division in Akure, the state capital, the syndicate, a 62-year-old woman named Sabira Izuorah, and a couple named Isiaka Lukman and Abosede Lukman were taken into custody.
Wilfred Afolabi, the Commissioner of Police (CP), claimed that ten children between the ages of two and seven and four infants between the ages of one week and two months had been found among the suspects while they were being paraded at the State Police Command headquarters in Akure.
CP Afolabi further suggested that the buyer was Izuorah from Ihiala in Anambra State, while the dealers were Isiaka, 42, and Abosede, 23 from Ibadan in Oyo State.
The couple were apprehended by intelligence-led policing after being located in Ottah Village, Edo State, according to the CP.
He said, “During interrogation, the suspects (couple) admitted to abducting the child and other children from Ondo and Osun States.”
The couple acknowledged selling their victims to Sabira in Ihiala, Anambra State, for N1 million each child, according to CO Afolabi, who also revealed that Sabira was apprehended in Ihiala and that four infants were discovered in her care.
“A complainant reported that a man, Samuel Adejobi (real name: Lukman Isiaka and a woman, Ewatomi (real name: Abosede Olanipekun), came to her shop pretending to be siblings to eat.
“On getting to the market area, he abandoned her and left. The complainant, on getting back to the shop, discovered that her child was missing with no trace of Abosede, the supposed sister of the man she followed to the market.
“A case of a missing child was reported at Okuta Elerin-Nla Division in Akure.”
The culprits were apprehended after being located in Ottah Village, Edo State, through intelligence-led police.
The suspects acknowledged during questioning that they had kidnapped the youngster and several others from Ondo and Osun States and sold them to a man named Sabira Izuorah “f,” who is sixty-two, in Ihiala, Anambra State, for N1 million each.
“The following babies were discovered in Sabina’s custody after she was arrested in Ihiala.”