The officers also rescued a
2-year-old girl suspected to be one of their victims. The girl, identified as
Gift Adaobi was said to have been sold to the gang by her grandmother.
Here is the story by Vangard:
The rescue followed the
arrest of four persons suspected to be involved in human trafficking at Ebonyi.
The arrest has since fueled
fears that such crimes may be happening surreptitiously in other Council areas
without the knowledge of security agencies in the State.
Vanguard Metro, VM, learnt
that the baby who was allegedly sold at the cost of ₦350, 000 by her
grandmother in Cross River State to a buyer who was identified as Mrs. Ngboro
Chikezie, an Area Officer with the State Ministry Health, was rescued after a
month’s surveillance on the suspects by officials of NSCDC.
Apart from the education
officer, other suspects according to the Corps include a native doctor, a
school teacher in Abakaliki and a young man who lives in the neighbourhood
where the arrest was effected.
The Commandant of NSCDC in
Ebonyi State, Mrs. Ego Echendu revealed that the prompt arrest of the suspects by
the Arms Squad and Anti-Human Traffic Unit of the Command was what foiled the
plot by the suspects to transfer their victim to Abuja.
The Commandant, who stated
that several other suspects connected with the sale of the baby were still at
large, explained that as soon as the Command completes its investigations, the
case would be transferred to the agency responsible for such matters.
“Yesterday, we were able to arrest some suspects we have been trailing and
monitoring for about one month now who are involved in child trafficking.
We have some of them now in
our custody while some are still at large. Based on the information we got, we
arrested them in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State to be precise at
Nkor junction near Nwenzenyi. From the information we have gathered so far, one
of them is a dealer.
This is not the first baby
she has sold. The other suspect is a buyer and we don’t know how many times she
must have done that,” she said.
Continuing, the Commandant
said, “We had to strike yesterday following the information that reached us.
The buyer was about to move to Abuja to another set of people for a higher
amount of money. The information we got was that the baby was bought at the
cost of ₦253, 500. We are tiding up our file. This is not one of our core
mandates and for that reason, we shall transfer the case to the agency saddled
with such responsibility. They have confessed to the crime and have given us
some names”.
“The dealer is Blessing
Nwilo, a teacher with Sharon Secondary School, Abakaliki, but hails from Enugu.
The buyer is Ngboro Chikezie from Ohaukwu Local Government Area and she claims
that she is an Area Officer with the Ministry of Education in Ebonyi State,”Mrs
Echendu alleged.
Narrating her ordeal, the
mother of the victim, Miss Ndidi Nkwegu alleged that it was her mother who is
based in Cross River State that masterminded the sale of her daughter, Gift
Adaobi, to a human trafficker when she travelled to Ebonyi State in search of a
job.
“When I came back home and
asked my mother about my daughter, she couldn’t tell me anything reasonable.
I discovered that she had
bought so many things which she didn’t have before. Actually, my mother was
unhappy when she discovered that I was pregnant of this baby. I left the baby
with her (my mother) last month,” the lady who hails from Igbeagu in the Izzi
Local Government Area, said.
“My mother resides in Cross
River state and that was where I left my baby with my mother. The baby is two
years and one month old. I decided to leave my baby with my mother because she
(my baby) can do almost everything on her own. I had to call the police for
her; she is now in detention at the Police station in Cross River State.
After interrogation, we
discovered that she was the one that sold my baby to a woman who is a dealer in
children,” Ndidi alleged.
The alleged dealer who hails
from Enugu State and the buyer who confessed to the crime, however gave
contradictory accounts on where, how and why the baby was sold.
VM gathered that the NSCDC
has intensified efforts to arrest other fleeing suspects
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