Gombe police parades 4 suspects, rescues 12 kidnapped children

By HARUNA GIMBA YAYA, Gombe

The Gombe State Police Command has paraded four suspected human traffickers and rescued 12 kidnapped children after they were allegedly sold to human traffickers in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Parading the suspects on Monday, the state Commissioner of Police, Maikudi Shehu, said most of the children were abducted while playing at their respective neighbourhoods.

He said the children were reported missing by their parents in 2017.

The suspects are Ali Bala Shaukani from Taraba state, Hauwa Usman from Gombe state and Nkechi Odulye and Faith Okpai from Anambra state.

CP Shehu added that the three principal suspects, Ali, Faith and Nkechi have been on the run for three years before they were finally arrested by the police last week, following an investigation that led the police to Anambra State.

He revealed that one of the suspects, Ali Shaukane sold his two biological children to Nkechi Odulye in Anambra State.

The police commissioner added that several children reported missing from Gombe State has been already sold to buyers in Delta State.

Although, none of the 12 children rescued are from Gombe state, one of the suspect, Hauwa Usman, confessed to stealing about 20 children from Gombe and selling them to the syndicate headed by Nkechi.

However, Nkechi claimed that she is not a human trafficker, but owned an orphanage home registered by the Anambra State Government.

According to her, after training the children at her orphanage, she sold seven of them to some foster mothers in Asaba, Delta State at the cost of N750, 000 each.

On his part, Ali Shaukane denied selling his biological children, saying being a Muslim, he only entrusted them to Nkechi to train them in Christianity because he want them to be brought up as Christians.

While Hauwa has confessed being introduced into the trafficking by Shaukani, Nkechi and Faith denied involvement in the alleged crime.

Speaking with Daily Trust, Pastor Henry Osah and Florence Osah, who came from Delta state to unite with their son, Joel Henry, said he was abducted when he was just two years and seven months on July 19, 2019.

Osah said he was abducted while playing at their two-bedroom apartment at Emede in Isoko South LGA of Delta State. (Daily Trust)