From EMMANUEL UZOR, Onitsha
Uneasy calm reigns in Onitsha, Anambra State as child theft has assumed a dangerous dimension in the commercial city with the emergence of a syndicate that allegedly steals children from Calabar, Cross River State and uses Onitsha as its sales point.
However, luck ran out on two suspected female members of the syndicate yesterday when they were apprehended at separate spots by policemen attached to the Okpoko Police Division at Akwa Ibom Park axis along Onitsha-Owerri Road after an unidentified woman was arrested for allegedly stealing two babies from Calabar and selling them in Onitsha.
Another woman suspected to be a member of the child trafficking syndicate was also arrested by operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) attached to Okpoko Police Division at the Calabar Motor Park on Onitsha-Owerri Road.
Daily Sun gathered that the suspects, who were undergoing interrogation at the office of Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Emeka Ugwu, were arrested following a tip off by some staff of the Akwa Ibom Motor Park and passersby, who suspected their movements.
According to one of the witnesses simply identified as Obinna, one of the suspects was a regular visitor to the park, and had always come on a weekly basis with different children after which she would return to Calabar, leaving the children behind.
Obinna said nemesis caught up with the women when one of them came into the park in a vehicle belonging to the Transport Company of Anambra State (TRACAS) with a newly born baby with blood stains.
“The lady comes to the park almost every week; at times at two weeks interval and we discovered that each time she appeared, she had two or three children mostly day old and one-week old children. There was a day she carried a baby with stain of blood showing that the child had just been delivered. So, today (yesterday) she came from Calabar and because we have been monitoring her, we noticed that she had two children with her. But when she resurfaced to board a bus back to Calabar without those kids, that was when we confirmed our suspicion and invited the police,” he said.
