The Anambra State Police Command, yesterday, said it arrested a couple for alleged trafficking of a month-old baby from Lagos.

The command, which said the interception was made at the River Niger bridgehead in Onitsha, on December 17, 2023, however, did not reveal the identity of the couple.

State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, in a statement, said the couple was travelling in a luxury bus belonging to a popular transport company, when a co-passenger observed that the supposed mother could not breastfeed the baby, despite its cries for food.

The Good Samaritan reportedly called the police hotline in Awka, which, in turn, relayed the information to officers at the bridgehead in Onitsha. The operatives, thereafter, intercepted the bus, identified the alleged traffickers, and took them in for questioning.

“They confessed to buying the child from its mother in Ajah, Lagos, for N30,000,” Ikenga said.

He added that the state Commissioner of Police, Aderemi Adeoye, thanked the public-spirited citizen for giving the information that led to the rescue of the child. Adeoye also commended the police officers for their vigilance and dedication to duty.

The CP directed that the couple be handed to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons for further investigation and prosecution while the baby has been placed in care of the Ministry of Women Affairs.