Abia State commissioner of police, Alhaji Usman Tilli Abubakar has urged residents of the state to assist the police in her bid to ensure that the crime of child trafficking is rooted out of the state.
In an interview with our correspondent, Abubakar wants all hands on deck to expose the activities of these traffickers whom he said now operate under the guise of social homes and orphanages to deceive residents and security agents.
“People should volunteer information to the police. We are not spirits; we can only work effectively if we are given information. Residents should not fail in this regard. These child traffickers have continued to up their game; they now operate under the guise of social homes and orphanages to sell children and deceive residents and security agents. But I they won’t have peace, we will find them wherever they are hiding.”
Speaking on the recent arrest of 11 pregnant girls aged between 18 to 23 and the nurses taking care of them at Isaac Okwuonu Memorial Hospital, Ogbor Hill, Aba, whose proprietor, Dr. Chukwuemeka Chinyere Okwuonu is still at large, the CP warned that child traffickers have devised many ways to hide their evil act from the security agents.
He stated that one of the girls who were nabbed at the Okwuonu Hospital, Gift Lawrence from Item in Bende Local Government Area, has not seen her boy child since she was delivered of it on September 4 and accused the medical doctor of selling the baby.
“We must open our eyes to the game of these child traffickers. He takes care of the pregnant girls, when anyone delivers, he will pay 10,000 or 15,000 depending on the sex of the baby. He has no right to do that. He must produce the baby boy delivered by Gift Lawrence.”
On claims of the medical doctor that he is a running an NGO/Social home called Mother Ijato Family Care Trust registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission with the objective of preventive and care services for victims of unwanted pregnancy, protection of children without families and orphans rehabilitation, the CP said.
‘If Dr. Okwuonu claim to be running a social home or NGO, was he permitted to sell babies? Where is the baby delivered of Gift Lawrence? Did the government also gave him approval to take pregnant girls and hide them away from their parents, when they deliver he will sell the babies between 250,000 and 350,000 depending on the sex. This is where he has been using you pressman and some lawyers to escape justice, but you cannot stop us from doing our duty. Since he has a permit to run the NGO and a court injunction against arrest, let him come out and stop running from the law. Let him report to the Police.
“A permit or approval to run an NGO or Social Home is one thing, but what you do with the permit given to you is another thing. How you make use of the permit is the issue. Government cannot give permit to sell babies. Does Gift Lawrence not have the right to have new born baby? Let him produce the baby of the girls. We are determined to get to the root of the matter. ”
The CP further refuted reports of alleged intimidation, armed siege and harassment by his men on the Okwuonu Memorial Hospital, Ogbor Hill, Aba, describing it as one of the antics employed by the medical doctor to escape justice. “He should come out from hiding to prove himself than his lawyer writing frivolous petitions and using journalists to try to frustrate the matter,” the CP said.
