Plateau Police Arrest Human Trafficking Suspects
Suleiman Bello
Plateau State Police Command has arrested two suspects in connection with alleged trafficking of some girls from Bokkos Local Government Area of the state to Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
The State Commissioner of Police, Chris Alakpe, announced this during a news briefing on the activities of the Command in curbing crime wave in the state.
According to Channels TV report, one of the suspects, Mr Naphtali Zabade, believed he was only earning a honest livelihood as he claimed to have gotten parental consent of the girls he took out of town to Port Harcourt for menial jobs.
He reportedly told reporters that he had been erroneously arrested as he was a missionary from a Christian organization helping the girls to build a future.
He claimed that he was shocked by allegations that he was taking the girls out for prostitution in Port Harcourt, as the people he was taking them to were Christians who would not do such a thing.
According to him, he had taken some of the girls’ sisters out in the past and they were all doing well. This he said earned him the trust of the girls’ parents who simply want a better life for their kids.
The hands of the law, however, caught up with him on the allegations of child trafficking, and for the Plateau State Police Command, Mr Zabade had crossed the red line, for trafficking 5 girls from Plateau State for menial jobs.
He may have to face the wrath of the law if found guilty.
Other suspects paraded by the Plateau Police Command were being accused of various offences including inciting violence and unlawful possession of dangerous weapons, as well as robbery
