The acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has issued an order to all assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of Zonal Commands, State Command Commissioners of Police and other police field Commanders to ensure water tight security around orphanage homes in the country.
This directive is coming on the heels of spate of human trafficking cases which have been synonymous to most orphanage centres in Nigeria in recent times.
In a statement by Emmanuel Ojukwu, Force Public Relations Officer, the decision of Abba follows the disturbing trends which involves the selling of babies within and outside the country especially in some ‘motherless babies homes’ across Nigeria.
“The Inspector-General of Police, Acting IGP Suleiman Abba, NPM, NPOM, mni, has directed all Assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of Zonal Commands, State Command Commissioners of Police and other Police field Commanders to put measures in place so as to put an immediate end to the illegal sale of babies in the country,” the statement read.
Abba reiterated that all the motherless babies homes and centers in their respective domains should be properly monitored so as to nip in the bud the trafficking of babies within and outside the country.
“The IGP directed that all police personnel should be thoroughly lectured on this subject. The IGP therefore called on the members of the public to furnish the Police with the necessary information that will help in addressing this heinous crime.”
Meanwhile, a heartless mother had dumped a day old baby in a drainage channel on Holy Timothy Street Aboru, Agbado Oke – Odo, LCDA area of Lagos.
According to residents of the area who rescue the hapless baby said the baby was found in the gutter on Friday, 19 October, 2014 at about 5pm by a petty trader, Mrs Ronke Balogun a.k.a Iya Owo whose shop is almost directly opposite the drainage.
Mrs Ronke Balogun, a petty trader who alerted other residents when she saw the baby said, “a male passer-by who heard the baby crying called my attention to the spot where I found the baby wrapped in a window blind.”
She disclosed further that she immediately picked up the baby and took him to a nearby church, Holy Timothy K&S Church, Aboru situated about twenty metres to the spot and handed him over to a female church member, Prophetess Shola Adesanya who cleaned up the baby boy.
