Five of the suspects were arrested by the police at Akwukwu-Igbo in
Oshimili North Local Government Area.
Two members of the gang, operating on a motorcycle, last Monday,
abducted a one year, four-month-old boy, while he was playing with
other children in Atuma community, near Akwukwu-Igbo.
Some of the vigilant residents, however, recognised one of the
abductors who was from a neighbouring community.
He was released from jail about two months ago, where served term for
asimilar incident.
Vanguardgathered that the Divisional Police Officer, Akwukwu-Igbo
Police Station, acting on a tip-off, asked his men to storm the
residence ofthe principal suspect, who escaped through the window on
seeing the police.
He was shot on the leg as he tried to disarm a police officer and
arrested. At the time of this report, the 19-year-old suspect was
receivingtreatment at the General Hospital, Akwukwu-Igbo.
Police recovered the child unhurt at Igbodo, near Umunede, while the
mother and wife of the principal suspect, believed to be part of the
gang, were in police custody.
It was gathered that the couple in police custody had to two children,
whowere sold.
The second suspect, whose mother is based in Umunede, is still at
large, was apprehended with the stolen child at Igbodo, and handed
over to the police in Akwukwu-Igbo on Sunday.
At the General Hospital, a source said the doctor had referred the
injuredsuspect to the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, but was refused
admissionbecause of lack of bed space.
A police source toldVanguard: "This is a powerful kidnap/child
traffickingsyndicate that had been operating in this area for a very
long time.
"You can see that some parents, their children and nurses are in the
syndicate. We have arrested some principal suspects, but we have to
get others too."
Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, confirmed the
incident when contacted byVanguard, saying "they are child
traffickers."
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