The Department of State Service, Bayelsa Command, has arrested three pastors and a woman for allegedly trafficking 36 children.
The three pastors are said to belong to the Assemblies of God Church and a woman, who runs a private school in Yenagoa.
The four suspects were paraded at the DSS office in Yenagoa on Wednesday.
The pastors’ names were given as Dauda Nurugada, 32, from Kebbi State; Anthony Anthony Onwebeyi, 53, from Anambra State, Rev. Benaalim Isa-Garba, 43, from Kaduna State, and Mrs Tombra Alazigha, 38, school proprietress.
The 36 children, whose ages range between five and 14 years, rescued from homes, where they had been used as maids were brought to the parade.
Addressing journalists at the state headquarters of the DSS, the Assistant State Director of Security, Mr. Friday Onuche, said the children were rescued from homes in Yenagoa and Kaiama in Bayelsa state, Enugu-Agidi in Anambra state and Port Harcourt in Rivers State after investigations.
He said the kingpins operated under the guise of missionaries and non-governmental organisations.
He said they targeted vulnerable children largely from the Northern part of the country.
He said among the places targeted by the suspected traffickers are Zuru ethnic group in Kebbi and Zamfara states and Zaria in Kaduna State.
He said the suspects usually approached the poor parents to allow the innocent children under the guise of assisting to send them to school and getting good education.
Onuche said the children rather than go to school as promised always ended up as househelps or hawkers on the streets.
Onuche said, “There is the need therefore for members of the public to be sensitised on the need to be circumspect in the way they give their children or take in children from such unsuspecting modern slave traders.”
Speaking on the allegation, Pastor Anthony Onwebeyi, who confirmed that he had been arrested for the same offence by police but released after investigations by the Anambra state Police Command, said he was not a trafficker.
He said he is a missionary, whose mission was to help children get back to school.
He said he only collected some small amount of money as transport fares from those who eventually got custody of the kids.
Alazigha, said she runs both a private school and an NGO that takes care of vulnerable children.
She said she had six of the children in her custody and they were all brought to her by the pastors.
She however denied using them as housemaids, saying they attend her school together with her other six children from her meagre earnings being a civil servant and a school proprietress
No comments:
Post a Comment