The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used as a baby factory in Imo State.
The girls were intercepted by the NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Aba-Owerri expressway in Imo State on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
The teenagers were arrested while being relocated from their hideout in the Naze area of Owerri to the Ikenegbu area of the Imo State capital.
The NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who made the disclosure in a statement issued on Sunday, September 17, identified the victims as Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16.
Babafemi noted that the teenage girls, in their statements, claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them.
He stated that the Imo State Command of the NDLEA has since handed over the teenage girls to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations.
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He added that two suspects – Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31 – were arrested with 227.1kgs of cannabis on Tuesday, September 11, at Ikebe village, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State.
The NDLEA spokesperson disclosed that a 35-year-old female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, was nabbed with 108kgs of cannabis on Saturday, September 16, in the Ifo area of Ogun State.
Babafemi said 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55kgs and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo of Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday, September 12, along Abuja road have been traced to two other suspects, Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali, who he said were arrested in follow-up operations in Kano.
He noted that a 27-year-old suspect, Kingsley Chimaobi, was also arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on Tuesday, September 12.
Commending the anti-narcotics officers for intensifying their drug control efforts, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), equally applauded the commitment of all the agency’s commands across the country to work with other stakeholders to take the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation lectures and advocacy messages to the communities, schools, worship centres, workplaces, and traditional institutions.
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