Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have foiled a six-man syndicate, suspected to be child traffickers.
The police effort yielded the recovery of a three-year-old boy rescued from the gang.
PUNCH Metro gathered that on June 13, 2023, at about 0830hours, one Aisha Yusuf of Abraka community in Asaba, reported at the police station that her three-year-old son, Abubakar Atiku, was stolen by one Mohammed Isah, aged 35years.
Acting on the complaint, the Commissioner of Police, Delta State, CP Wale Abass gave a marching order to the Divisional Police Officer ‘C’ Division Asaba, CSP Apu Torukeregha, to effect the arrest of the suspect and rescue the stolen child.
In compliance with this directive, the DPO led operatives of the Division’s Anti-crime patrol team on a frantic search for the stolen child.
Acting on a tip-off, the team stormed Abraka market in Oshimili-South LGA, where the principal suspect Mohammed Isah was arrested.
Upon interrogation, he confessed to the crime and led the police operatives to arrest three other members of the child theft syndicate, namely – Ibrahim Sani (23), Kabiru Ibrahim (52), and Abubakar Mohammed, a 32years old cripple.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the nefarious group belongs to a child trafficking syndicate that steals children and sells them for huge sums of money.
The suspects also led policemen to a hotel in Onitsha Anambra State where the team arrested one Suleiman Mohammed, (38), in whose custody the missing child was found.
The suspect arrested in Anambra, like others, has confessed to the police that he was waiting for the supposed buyer of the said child, noting that they had agreed to sell the child for the sum of N800,000.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer for Delta State Command, DSP Bright Edafe, informed that the child has been recovered and reunited with the mother, while the suspects are in custody, as the investigation is ongoing.
In another development, on June 12, 2023, at 0800 hours, operatives of ‘A’ Division, Warri Anti-Crime Patrol team while on visibility patrol along the African Church behind Daudu Police post, sighted a tricycle with Registration No. BUR 240 VC, conveying two male occupants who were heading in their direction.
The PPRO stated that when the team accosted the tricycle for a routine search, the duo jumped out and escaped, even as the team chased after the fleeing suspects who narrowly escaped.
However, when a thorough search was conducted on the abandoned tricycle, one locally fabricated cut-to-size pistol was recovered.
The police spokesman noted that the exhibits are presently in police custody, while the manhunt for the fleeing suspects is ongoing.
In the meantime, the State Commissioner of Police, Abass has solicited the continued support of the public “by giving useful, timely, and credible information that will aid in crime fighting,” while assuring that their identities will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
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