An officer of the Nigeria Customs Service and his wife have been
arrested by the police in Ogun State for allegedly buying a set of 4
day-old twin babies for N500,000 in the Sango Ota area of the state.
Punch
Metro reports that the officer, identified only as Azeez, and his wife
were arrested by the Sango Police Division last Thursday and the babies
recovered from them. They have now been transferred to the State
Criminal Investigation Department, Command headquarters in Eleweran,
Abeokuta.
Azeez had confessed to the crime in his statement to
the police. He had allegedly paid the sum to obtain the babies when his
wife did not give birth to a second child after 23 years.
A police source told Punch:
“The
incident happened last Thursday. The police got a tip-off that the
couple had gone to Ibadan, Oyo State, to buy twin babies for N500,000.
We then moved in on them and discovered it was true. (Continue Reading)
The twins
were just four days old on the day of the arrest. We have not seen the
parents yet. The customs man said in his statement that he and his wife
already had a child together but they had tried to have a second child
for 23 years and so they decided to purchase the twins. The suspect told
the police that he paid N500, 000 for the babies. The babies had been
with the police until Friday, when they were transferred to Abeokuta.
The suspects were taken to the anti-kidnapping
section
of the SCID. It is possible that the parents of the babies connived
with the suspects because they have refused to show up since the day of
the arrest. But the babies are doing very fine.”
The Ogun State
Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed
the arrest. He added that investigations were still ongoing. He said:
“The
arrest is true. The case has been transferred to the SCID, and it is
being handled by the Anti-human trafficking department. The suspects are
still undergoing investigation. During our investigations, we will get
across to the parents and find out the circumstances that led to the
disappearance of their babies.
We will also get across to the NCS
authorities to show the level of complicity of their officer. I cannot
disclose the suspect’s name, because we are still investigating. He was
arrested with the wife.
The Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs
Service, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, Ejesieme Uche,
when contacted, referred PUNCH Metro to the Ogun Area Command
spokesperson, Usman Abdullahi.
“He will be in a better position
to confirm or debunk this,” he added. Abdullahi, however, had yet to
reply to a text message sent to his phone on the incident as of
press time.
No comments:
Post a Comment