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Ben Dunno, Warri
The Delta State Police Commissioner, Adeyinka Adeleke, has directed the Warri Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force to conclude investigation into a child trafficking case involving an orphanage.
This directive to the Warri Area Commander, ACP Mohammed Garba, was in furtherance of investigations into cases of child trafficking allegations leveled against some orphanage homes by an NGO, Nigerian Child Welfare Fund, based in Warri, Delta State.
Related: Hoodlums attack Orphanage in Delta
The NGO President, Comrade Joshua Omorere, had in a petition to the Warri Area Command alleged that some orphanages operating in the state, especially in Warri, Ughelli and Agbor, were members of syndicates involved in the sale of babies.
These allegations prompted the officers and men attached to the Warri Area Command into action that led to the arrest of three suspects across the state over the trafficking of a two-and-half-year-old baby girl presently in police custody.
Those arrested included, the matron of Divine Orphanage Home, Rosemary Johnson, and another Madam Rose IIogbo in Ughelli, alongside another woman who allegedly bought the child for the sum of N850,000 from the aforementioned ladies.
The police also discovered and exposed a baby-making factory in Agbor in the course of investigations into the activities of the child trafficking network operating in the state.
During the raid, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, identified as Isioma Monday, and a staff of Divine Orphanage were also arrested at the factory, which fronts as an orphanage to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
It was further revealed that Madam Rose IIogbo, who was confronted with an audio recording where she was negotiating for the child for the reported amount, confessed that Juliet Philips, who had been fingered in other cases of child trafficking, gave her the baby to sell.
IIogbo claimed that she sold the child to one lady who had gone through the adoption process for N850, 000 in Ughelli.
She also confessed that the matron of Divine Home Orphanage at Agbor gave her another child to sell for N850,000, but people that were interested were offering N800,000, stressing that the matron of Divine Orphanage insisted it must be N850,000.
“On the 5th of December, 2018 Madam Rose returned the child to Divine Home Orphanage because Police were closing in on her,” she said.
During interrogation, the pregnant lady, Isioma Monday, who was arrested with a staff of the orphanage home, separately made contradictory statements.
Isioma Monday claimed she came to visit her aunty, a staff of Divine Orphanage Home. But the orphanage worker said Monday was her younger sister.
Monday later opened up to the police that she didn’t know either the staff of the orphanage or the matron, revealing that she was there to give birth to and sell her own child.
In a desperate attempt to bury the case, the matron of the orphanage Rosemary Johnson, had approached the Delta State Police Command in Asaba and demanded that the case file be transferred there to frustrate further investigation and prosecution.
Acting swiftly, however, the Police Commissioner Adeleke ordered that the case be reverted back to the Warri Area Command to conclude investigations and prosecute those found wanting in the case.
