The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has rescued 15 minors trafficked and sold for N2 million each by a fake official of a civil society organisation, the National Council of Child Rights Advocate.
The NSCDC Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Babawale Afolabi, said this at a news briefing on Friday at the NSCDC Headquarters, Abuja.
He said that a member of a syndicate represented himself as an official of the National Council of Child Rights Advocate to the parents of the children, deceiving them into handing over their children to him.
“Under the guise of operating an NGO and orphanage programme called the Back to School Project, he lured willing, less privileged parents into releasing their children with promises of free education,” Afolabi said.
The NSCDC spokesperson said that the rescue was, however, executed by the Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad (CGs SIS) headed by Commander Dandaura Appollos.
Afolabi said that 15 of the 16 trafficked children from Kama Madaki and Gudindi Mada communities, Kokona LGA in Nasarawa, were rescued from their buyers.
“Through advanced field tracking, technical intelligence and multi-state tactical sweeps, operatives of the CG’s SIS tracked down the buyers who were from different locations in the country,” he said.
According to him, three of the victims were rescued in Anambra, Imo and Enugu respectively, while 12 others were rescued in a coordinated operation across the eastern transit routes.
Afolabi further said that three buyers: one male and two females, had been apprehended in connection with the case.
He said that the NSCDC has a zero-tolerance policy against crime and human trafficking.
Afolabi said that upon the corps’ completion of its investigation, all the suspects found culpable would be prosecuted.
(NAN)
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