Joy Anyim
A Lagos-based couple, who belong to a syndicate, that specialise in trafficking children from the northern part of the country to the east, have been arrested by men of the Ojo Police Division, Lagos State Police Command.
The couple, identified as Chukwunonso Blessing, and Chukwunoso Happiness, leaving at No. 23 Masebinu Street, Igbede, Ojo, were arrested and two boys – Joshua James, 6, and Samuel Gbawune, 3 – rescued from them.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects buy the children between N100,000 and N200,000, and subsequently sell them off for as high as N600,000.
Speaking on how the suspects were arrested in a press statement issued on Sunday, the Lagos Police Public Relations Relations Officer (PPRO), Elkana Bala said Happiness was about travelling with the boys when the transport operators, who suspected her not to be the mother of the boys, accosted her.
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Bala said, “ On information from a credible source, detectives from Ojo Division led by the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Abdullah Malah, arrested Chukwunonso Blessing, 30. She was seen along Alaba International Market with two children namely Joshua James and Samuel Gbawune, trying to board a vehicle to Onitsha, Anambra State.
“ Upon questioning, she claimed that the boys were adopted by her husband, Chukwunoso Happiness, 40, from a motherless Baby home in Jos, Plateau State and brought to Lagos.
She said she was taking them to Onitsha to meet her husband. On November 1, 2019, at 7 a.m., the said husband was also arrested by the Police. He confessed to having bought the kids at the sum of N140,000 from one Mama Oyoo of Jos township. The kids were recovered.”
The PPRO said efforts are emplaced to identify the parents of the boys and reunite them. The Command also called on Motor Park Operators, Unions and well-meaning Nigerians to keep an eye on passengers with kids that appear in Suspicious manner.
