Three child traffickers in Anambra State were on Wednesday handed over to the Gombe Police by the State Police Command for prosecution.

The syndicate, comprising Blessing John, 24-year-old, an indigene of Bauchi; Ngozi Etisiobi 52-year old from Achina, (Anambra state) and Faith Okapi 38 years from Ugep in Cross River State were nabbed at Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state while making plans to sell the two male children for N700,000.

Addressing journalists at the state Command in Amawbia, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Haruna Mohammed, said the syndicates were arrested on Tuesday by the police.

He said the two toddlers rescued at Nkpor near Onitsha were 2-year-old Yusuf Musa and Mustapha Abdul-Aziz, 3-year-old.

According to him, the command received signal from the Gombe State Police Command that the toddlers were stolen from Gombe.

He said: “When the parents arrived from Gombe, Police took them to child welfare centre where the two children were kept. Immediately the rescued children sighted their parents, they ran to them. That action alone goes a long way to show that the people from Gombe were their true parents.

“The syndicates had wanted to sell each of the boys for N750,000.”

While saying that the children were abducted while they were they were outside their home playing, the PPRO said that John who kidnapped the children claimed one of the stolen children was her own child while the other belonged to her late sister.

He said that John, the principal suspect moved the children from Gombe to Nkpor near Onitsha before linking Okpai.

Mohammad added that the role of Etisiobi who claimed to be a welfare officer to an undisclosed centre was to contact buyers for the children.

Mr. Yusuf Musa, father of one of the rescued toddlers, said he got information on the rescue of his son through his wife who saw the report and picture on Facebook.

“When my wife informed me that she saw the picture of our missing son which incident occurred on Oct. 20, 2019, we went to Police Command headquarters, Gombe where we reported the matter earlier and gave them an update.

“To our surprise, when we reached Anambra, we truly uncovered that it was our children that were rescued from the hands of the evil people by the police,” the elated father said.

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