KUNLE OLUTAYO
Four suspected child traffickers have been arrested by the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), code-named Operation Amotekun.
The suspects are Mrs Dorcas Adefowoke, Mrs Oyetunji Ebunoluwa, Miss Adefowoke Toyin and Miss Boluwatife Soremi alleged to have been involved in trafficking of two children to Libya.
Among the suspects are two prophetesses, who confessed to have kept more than 30 persons in preparation for the same mission before the arrest.
Parading the suspects in Ado Ekiti, the commandant of the Amotekun corps, Mr Joel Komolafe noted that the suspects were arrested after a tip-off by some citizens.
He confirmed that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects, who had formed a cartel, had finalised arrangements to ferry the two victims to Libya without the consent of their parents.
According to him, the suspects were already on their way to hand over the victims to agents who will sell them as slaves to Libya before the command was able to track them.
The suspects were handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, and had been transferred to their head office for further investigation.
During an interview, the victims alleged that the suspects promised to assist them to London not knowing that they were on their way to a dangerous zone.
One of the victims, Shorimu Boluwatife, revealed that she absconded from home because her cousin, Adepoju Victor, a student of Federal Polytechnic, had raped her.
“After I absconded from home, I was on the street when a prophetess who owned a church found me and the other person, and we had to stay with her.
A boy named Okiki saw us in the church and then took us to his mother, ‘Woli Lilu in Igbimo’, who also has a church, promising that she could help us travel to London.
“Okiki’s mother also assured us that we would travel to London, saying that we would board a bus to Warri from Akure the following day. She told us that someone would meet with us in Warri.
“When we got to Warri, we met with a sister called Lizzy, who accommodated us for two days, afterwards, led us to where we boarded a bus to Onitsha. We were in Jalingo when Amotekun rescued us.
Reacting, the spokesperson for NAPTIP, Ekiti State Office, confirmed that four suspects and two victims have been handed over to them and has assured the general public that the matter would be investigated to the root and whosoever found guilty would be charged accordingly.
