Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta

CP Abdulmajid Ali addresses his men

Three suspected human traffickers were on Monday paraded by the Ogun State Police Command.

The three suspects are; Zainab Ahmad, 18, Aisha Abdullahi, 55 and Zuliat  Abdulmalik ,45. Also paraded were the 26 children aged between 8 – 10 years.

The suspects and the victims were paraded at the state Police command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta.

The State Police Commissioner, Abdulmajid Ali revealed that the suspects who were found with 26 underaged children were arrested at a motor park at Ibafo in Obafemi-Owode local government area of the state while planning to take them to Lagos.

The CP said  that the suspects were taking  the underaged children comprising 25 girls and one boy from the northern state of Kano to southwestern state of Lagos State for menial jobs.

According to him, “based on our usual stakeholders meeting and proactive measures put in place by Nigeria Police,  our attention was called yesterday that some groups of underage were seen at a motor park at Ibafo area.

“The security agents were called immediately. Our team raced there and got the leaders. The three women were going with them to Lagos.

“Their mission in Lagos, according to the suspects, is to take them to do some menial jobs which, if you look at them,  they don’t even know what they are in for.

“They look innocent and we had to take some measures to avoid unpleasant situations, particularly, in this yuletide period coming up.

“We are alert now because of the threat of insurgence coming into our area and we have to be very proactive.

“If you see the children, they look quite innocent and they may be used as suicide bombers and that is why we had to round them up and investigate them,” Ali explained.