By Izunna Okafor, Awka
A couple returning from Lagos State for Christmas has been arrested in Anambra State for buying a one-month-old baby on their way back.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu disclosed this in a statement issued to newsmen on Tuesday, in which he said the baby was bought at the sum of thirty thousand naira (N30,000).
According to him, the couple was arrested at the Bridgehead, Onitsha, after the police intercepted the commercial luxurious bus conveying the couple and other passengers.
The interception, he said, followed an alarm raised by one of the passengers in the bus, who secretly contacted the Anambra State Police Command through its Control Room hotline and informed them of what was happening when she discovered that despite how long the little baby had been crying inside the bus all the way from Lagos, the woman carrying him as his mother refused to breastfeed him.
DSP Ikenga said: “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 as was described, and intercepted it in the evening hours. The couple and the Baby were identified and brought down for questioning.
“They confessed buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos for the sum of N30,000.
“The Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye who thanked the good-spirited citizen for his humane concern in giving the information that led to the rescue of the child, also commended Police Operatives for their vigilance and dedication to duty.
“He has directed that the couple be handed to National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution. Meanwhile the Baby has been handed to the Ministry of Women Affairs for care by the State Government.”
