Police rescue 14 children, arrest suspected child traffickers in Ondo
The Ondo state police command has arrested three suspects over kidnapping and child trafficking allegations.
Addressing journalists in Akure, the Ondo capital, on Saturday, Wilfred Afolabi, commissioner of police, said 14 children between the ages of one week and seven years were rescued.
The suspects were identified as Lukman Isiaka, 42; Abosede Olanipekun; and Sabira Izuorah, 62.
The arrests followed a report by a mother whose 18-month-old child was abducted in Akure.
“A case of a missing child was reported at Okuta Elerin-Nla division in Akure. A complainant reported that a man, Samuel Adejobi (real name: Lukman Isiaka, m age, 42 years), and a woman, Ewatomi (real name: Abosede Olanipekun), came to her shop pretending to be siblings to eat,” the police commissioner said.
“While playing with the complainant’s child, Abosede deceived her by claiming she wanted to buy biscuits for the baby. Meanwhile, Lukman distracted the complainant by engaging her in a personal conversation and requested she followed him to Olukayode Plaza in the market to get a mobile phone.
“On getting to the market area, he abandoned her and left. On getting back to the shop, the complainant discovered that her child was missing with no trace of Abosede the supposed sister of the man she followed to the market, thus a report was made at the division.”
Investigations led the police to Ottah Village in Edo state, where Isiaka and Olanipekun were apprehended. During interrogation, Afolabi said the suspects confessed to abducting children from Ondo and Osun states and selling them to one Sabira Izuorah in Ihiala, Anambra state, for N1 million per child.
Subsequently, Izuorah was arrested in Ihiala, and four infants were recovered from her residence.
The rescued babies were identified as “Baby Favour, three weeks old; Baby Chidera, two weeks old; Baby Chinyere, two months and five days old; and Baby Uzoma, one week old”.
The police commissioner added that on January 14, ten children sold by Izuorah were rescued from various locations. These children have been reunited with their families.
Afolabi said some children remain unaccounted for and assured that efforts are ongoing to locate and rescue them.
