- Agency Report
Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have confirmed that six additional children have been rescued from a suspected human trafficking syndicate operating from Kwara State.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.
Hundeyin said: “A source, whose name I will not mention, but who has been assisting the Ijora Badia Police Division in Lagos helped in rescuing the additional six children illegally trafficked to Lagos State.
“The source brought the children to the police as promised on Tuesday at about 12.00 p.m.
“The children rescued (names withheld) were between ages 8 years and 14 years.”
The image maker said that the Ijora Badia Divisional Police Officer, CSP Ayoola Olawale, had immediately contacted CSP Alice Leramo, the Officer in Charge of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Kwara Police Command.
Hundeyin said that the Kwara Police Command had earlier received 12 children from Ijora Badia Police Division, rescued from the suspect since Jan. 29.
He said that CSP Leramo had promised to re-dispatch an investigating team to Lagos to receive the additional six rescued children.
He noted that this would enable the Kwara Command to complete their investigation and reunite the children with their parents.
“All together, 18 trafficked underage children from Kwara have been rescued in Lagos, and handed over to the anti-trafficking unit of Kwara Command,” he said.
NAN reports that a suspected kingpin of child trafficking and labour syndicate was arrested on Jan. 25 after three months of intelligence gathering by the police command.
Hundeyin said that the syndicate usually brought underage children from the Northern part of Nigeria to Lagos State, for child labour and other illegal activities.
He said: “On Jan. 25, a 45-year-old leader of the syndicate, Alimot Haruna of Molete Village, Ilorin, (now in Kwara Police Command custody), was arrested by detectives from the Ijora Badia Police Division in Lagos.
“The division had been monitoring her movements.
“In the process, three underage children – two females and one male – whose names could not be ascertained between ages 7 years and 12 years of no fixed address, were rescued from her.
“During interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime. Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect had illegally brought 42 children to Lagos State for child labour without the consent of their parents.
“It was also revealed that the suspect had been declared wanted by the Kwara State Police Command in connection with the disappearance of many underage children, which had been linked to her syndicate,” Hundeyin said.