Police Parade Over 60 Suspects, Arrest 4 Women For Alleged Child Trafficking In Imo

The Imo State Police Command, has arrested four women for allegedly kidnapping a five-year-old girl, Chinagorom Ndukwe and reportedly sold her for N400, 000. The suspects were said to have served together in Port Harcourt Prisons. The Commissioner of Police, equally paraded over 60 others for various crimes ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and child trafficking. The suspects were said to have been arrested on January 22, 2018, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by operatives of the scorpion squad of the command, who acted on intelligence information. The suspects are, Chiamaka Ukeje, 22, from Umuduru in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, Sandra Ezuka, 26, from Ozoro in Isoko LGA, Delta State, Ruth Solomon , 41, from Umuehie Anara in the Isiala Mbano LGA and Joy Edum, 45, from Abua, Odua LGA of Rivers. Parading the suspects and others for various crimes ranging from kidnapping, child trafficking, armed robbery and cultism, yesterday, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Chris Ezike, stressed that the four child trafficking suspects had made confessional statements to the police.

CP Ezike, who said that the sold child had been recovered from the buyer, Edum, who resides at Rumwara Obiakpo, Rivers State, highlighted that the suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation. “The suspects, who are all resident in Rivers State, have made useful statements to the police, confessing to the crime. The suspects also stated that they all met themselves at the Federal Prisons, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The child has been recovered and reunited with her family”. “I am deeply pained and worried by the rate of child trafficking in our society. I want to urge faith based organisations and the churches to rise up against this ugly trend. I want to see Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) lead a sensitisation march against this trading in human beings”. When interviewed by newsmen, the prime suspect, 22- year-old Chiamaka, said she kidnapped the child in order to get at the father of the sold girl. Chiamaka, disclosed that her father and the father of the sold child, who is her uncle, were having altercations and kidnapping the five-yearold was her own way of getting her own pound of flesh from the uncle.