A couple has been apprehended by the Anambra State Police Command for purchasing a one-month-old infant for N30,000 in Lagos.
The arrest, as reported by DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the State Police Public Relations Officer, took place at the River Niger Bridgehead in Onitsha on December 17, 2023.
The couple, whose identities were not disclosed, were intercepted while traveling on a luxury bus owned by a well-known transport company.
Ikenga said in a statement on Tuesday, “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.”
He further explained, “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. The couple and the baby were identified and brought down for questioning.”
Upon questioning, the couple admitted to purchasing the baby from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for N30,000. The state Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, expressed gratitude to the citizen who alerted the police, leading to the rescue of the child.
He also praised the police officers for their alertness and commitment to their duties.
“The CP has directed that the couple be handed to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons for further investigation and prosecution. Meanwhile the baby has been handed over to the Ministry of Women Affairs for care by the state government,” he added.