The Nigeria Police Force says it has smashed two inter linked child trafficking rings that stretched across three states, freed scores of victims and arrested 11 suspects in a pair of coordinated raids carried out last week.
Force spokesman ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi told reporters on Monday that detectives from Zone 13, acting on “credible intelligence”, stormed a remote village on the Enugu-Anambra border and uncovered an illicit baby factory network. Eight women – named as Uzoamaka Ani (27), Joy Madu (52) and Victoria Onodu Akasike (56) among others – were arrested.
Officers rescued a seven month old boy, a four year old girl and two heavily pregnant women whom the syndicate allegedly intended to deliver and sell to black market adoption buyers. “All the victims are safe and receiving medical care,” Adejobi said, adding that several accomplices escaped and are being hunted.
Hours later, an Interpol tip off led Ondo State police to a safe house on the outskirts of Akure, where three Ghanaian suspects – Hayford Nyamekye, Awine Alex and Kojo Felix – were detained and 40 compatriots rescued from cramped quarters without valid travel papers. One victim, David Angerinya, had secretly contacted Ghanaian police, triggering the joint operation. Investigators say the gang lured West Africans to Nigeria with promises of Canadian visas, then confiscated passports and forced recruits into cyber fraud and domestic work.
Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun praised officers for their “gallantry” and reaffirmed the force’s zero tolerance stance on human trafficking. The rescued children and pregnant women are now in Ministry of Women Affairs shelters, while the foreign nationals are being screened by immigration and Ghanaian consular officials ahead of repatriation.
Both investigations will be charged under Nigeria’s Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act once case files are complete. Police urged the public to report suspicious clinics and safe houses, stressing that community vigilance remains the first line of defence against organised trafficking networks.
