From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Special Task Force (STF) in charge of internal security in Plateau State has paraded two suspected child traffickers who bought a four day-old baby in Bauchi State.
Commander of the STF sector 1, Colonel Musa Etsu-Ndagi, who paraded the suspects Tuesday at the STF headquarters, said the suspects who were travelling to Lagos with the baby were apprehended in Jos at about 7:30am on Monday.
Col. Etsu-Ndaqi, gave names of the suspects as Miss Doris Ebuburonu and Mrs. Esther James who confessed to have bought the child at N300,000 in Bauchi State.
He said it was a vigilant passenger, who was travelling alongside the suspected baby traffickers in a public car that raised alarm at the Babale checkpoint 1, in the outskirts of Jos when he noticed that the new born baby may not necessarily belong to the women.
“The suspects were intercepted at about 7:15pm on Monday and on questioning, it was discovered that Ms Doris had bought the baby from one Mr. Abuna in Bauchi.”
The 39-year-old Miss Ebuburonu who was caught with the baby explained that her aunt in Lagos, who has been married for years without a child, had contacted her to get a baby for her.
The other suspect, Mrs. James who is her sixties, explained that they were former colleagues at the Peoples Clinic in Bauchi and denied any knowledge of how Ms. Doris procured the baby.
James said Miss Ebuburonu who was a former nurse at the clinic, had told her that the baby belongs to her aunt who had just died.
The STF has handed over the baby to anti trafficking unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Jos, Plateau State, and assured that the STF will apprehend those behind the sale of the baby.