Officials of the Marine Patrol team of the Nigeria Immigration Service rescued a three-weeks old baby suspected to have been stolen by child Trafficker.
According to Mr Okey Ezugwu, who is The Cross River Comptroller of NIS, said that the suspected child trafficker, Mrs Maureen Awokara, was arrested on Dec. 19, 2020, at the high sea.
Ezugwu said the suspect was arrested by marine officers on patrol as a result of her inability to give a full explanation of who the baby really belongs to, EKO HOT BLOG gathered.
He said: “A few days ago, our officers in the marine patrol at the international waterways intercepted one Maureen Awokara, who claimed to be a native Imo state with a three-weeks old child.
“During the arrest, she came up with all stories that were not adding up. Initially, she said the child belongs to her sister, yet we have carried out a preliminary investigation and all the lines she gave us to reach the sister, one Chioma Iweh was not connecting.
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At this point, we are going to hand her over to NAPTIP for further investigations. The preliminary investigation gives us every reason to believe that the little child is being trafficked.
“The suspect claimed she was going to Cameroon, Gabon and wherever. We are suspecting a cartel deal because over time, we have had a lot of surveillance and serious checks at our border basis and the airport, making it impossible for any of them use these routes.
“We are looking at a situation where they have now devised a means of using the waterways, using small boats to take away these little children along,” he said.
Ezugwu also explained that the command’s efforts to get in touch with other family members to make sure if the family members were in agreement for her to take the baby away have proved abortive because the suspect was not ready to provide them with helpful information on the issue.
He revealed that the NIS marine patrol team will continue to monitor waterways to ensure that all kinds of child trafficking and other indictable offenses are eliminated.
He urged parents to always look out for their children with love and attention and to avoid all forms of leaving their children to be the victim of trafficking for financial purposes.
On her part, Maureen Awokara, 40, said the baby belongs to her younger sister who could not afford to take care of her delivery on Dec. 2, 2020.
She said that the younger sister decided to give her the child because she has been married for 18 years without a child.
“She gave me the baby in Imo state; since they brought me here, I have been trying to get in contact with her but her number isn’t connecting.
“The only time her number went through, I only heard a man’s voice, which was not her own,” she revealed.
She further revealed that the father of the child was also in agreement for her (Maureen) to take the baby away, Awokara said that the father of the child denied the pregnancy even before delivery.
“My younger sister is about 20 years. This is not her first time of giving birth; but, we don’t know where the first child is as we speak,” she said.
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