Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, on patrol along Okene-Lokoja expressway in Kogi State have intercepted 34 children between the ages of 8 and 14 being trafficked from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
The minors were packed in two commercial buses; Toyota Sienna and a 12- Seater Mazda with registration numbers Lagos LND124FV and Oyo BDJ-683YK respectively.
Read Also: NDLEA intercepts 64,000 pump action gun cartridges
They were recovered in the early hours of Thursday 16th Dec from the human trafficking syndicate, NDLEA spkesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement on Friday.
The bus drivers confirmed that the kids were handed over to them by a woman at Ijebu Ode to be conveyed to Abuja, adding that on arrival in FCT, the woman is to call another bus driver who will convey the children to Riyom in Plateau State.
It was further revealed that the children were initially trafficked from Plateau State to Ijebu Ode, where they were distributed to different households as domestic servants.
Some of the children were discovered to have served for two years and their rewards sent to woman’s agent in Jos.
Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended the officers and men of Kogi State command of the Agency for their vigilance and preparedness to work in synergy with other security agencies in their areas of responsibility,
He charged them to sustain the tempo while the 34 trafficked children are to be transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP for further investigation.
