The Ogun State Police Command has paraded about 45 suspected criminals including a 35-year-old mother of two arrested for human trafficking.
Parading the suspects which include rapists, armed robbery suspects, cultists among others, the state commissioner of police, Edward Ajogun said 113 armed robbery, 227 suspected cultists, 24 suspected kidnappers were arrested in the last six months while 1,139 suspects are undergoing prosecution
Seeking more collaboration and synergy with other security agencies and residents, the commissioner, however, promised tougher times for criminals in the state
The arrest of the 35-year-old mother of two, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, followed a report by one Oluwaseun Aduratola and one Sakirat Fasasi both residents of Siun town in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of the state who reported at Owode Egba police station that the suspect abducted their teenage daughters.
“The suspect who is a notorious human trafficker is about taking the two girls to Libya where they will be forced into prostitution,” he said on Thursday.
He said that On the strength of the report, the Divisional Police Officer, Owode Egba division, Mathew Ediae, quickly swung into action with his detectives and through intelligence-driven investigation; they succeeded in arresting the suspect.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed been a human trafficker and that she has been into the business for a long time.
“She confessed further that her husband is based in Italy while she stays in Nigeria recruiting young girls and send them to her husband in Italy, enroute Libya where they will be used as prostitutes,” the police spokesman explained.
According to Oyeyemi, the two girls she recently abducted had been taken to Kaduna State from where they will be transported to Libya.
But stating her own side of the story, the suspect, Comfort Innocent, denied any wrongdoing, saying that she was only trying to help the two victims
“I did not engage in human trafficking. I was only trying to help because those two girls always coming for financial assistance that is why I introduced them to one of my friends who told me that she needed girls for her hairdressing job,” she said.
“That was what she told me, I did not know that she has another motive. I am a petty trader; I have a shop in Owode where I sell provisions.”
She, however, appealed to the police authority in the state to allow her to see her nine-month-old boy whom she saw last when she was arrested for the alleged crime.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation.
The police boss also appealed to parents to always be mindful of their children well-being, especially the female ones in order to save them from those he regarded as wolves in human skins.
