Rivers Police Bust Child Trafficking Syndicate, Rescue Pregnant Teenagers
In a move being hailed as a major achievement, the Rivers State Police Command has busted a child trafficking syndicate operating in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Acting on intelligence, the C4i Intelligence Unit Operatives of the Command over the weekend raided two buildings at Igwuruta and Omagwa communities respectively, both in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state where victims of child trafficking were being kept.
Some of the victim are as young as 15 years old and are heavily pregnant while others nurse infants.
They were lured with the promise of financial reward depending on the sex of the baby they delivered.
One of the victims said she was promised the sum of N800,000 if she births a male child, and N700,000 for a female.
This position is corroborated by Peace, who is one of the four arrested suspects believed to be running the syndicate. The suspect claimed she merely provided shelter and care for the pregnant girls in her home.
Providing an update on the incident however, the police spokesperson in Rivers, Grace Iringe-Koko explained that at the moment, both the victims and suspects are in the custody of the CP Monitoring Unit but will soon be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
A child trafficking ring run by an alleged fake reverend sister was also busted in the state in 2022 and the children recovered have since been reunited with their families.
