The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives on patrol along Aba-Owerri Road on Wednesday, September 13, rescued five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking in a “baby factory”.
The spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, who made this known in a statement on Sunday, September 17, revealed that the victims were picked up while they were being relocated from their hideout in the Naze area of Owerri to the Ikenegbu area of the state capital.
He said the victims include: Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16.According to the Agency, the girls in their statements, claimed they did not know the men who impregnated them.
Babafemi said the Imo state command of the Agency has since been directed to hand them over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations.
He also disclosed that a Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday, September 13, sentenced to five years imprisonment a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilograms of skunk.
He said: “He was arrested on Saturday 1st July while conveying 89 jumbo bags of the illicit substance in his truck around the Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki. He was subsequently charged in suit number FHC/L/388C/2023 presided over by Justice Akintayo Aluko.”
This was as the Agency said, fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of some transnational drug trafficking organisations through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja and courier companies in Lagos have again been thwarted by operatives.
Babafemi, in the statement, said they intercepted the illicit drug consignments concealed in different items.
He said: “At the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday 12th September intercepted an intending passenger going to Oman, Ugwu Peter Tochukwu, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight. Upon a thorough search of his luggage, 7.50 kilograms of skunk were discovered concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf.
“In the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilograms of skunk and 14 grams of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and soles of ladies’ high heel shoes respectively.”
