The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Imo State Command paraded a 24 year-old EMMANUEL ABATALAM nabbed for his complicity in human trafficking.
Parading the suspect at the temporary office of NAPTIP in Imo State, the commander, NAPTIP Imo State Command, Mr. Ernest Ogbu said the suspect was arrested following a failed attempt to traffic two sisters of same parents (names withheld) to Libya.
According to the commander, the suspect recruited the two sisters in connivance with his alleged sister residing in Libya, but claiming to reside in Turkey. They promise the girls that they were being sent to Turkey to join his sister in clothing business. However, they ran out of luck when the girls suspected foul play as the Alhaji they were handed over in Abuja attempted to take them on road transport to Sokoto instead of the airport to board airplane to Turkey. The alarm alerted some drivers and concerned persons who invited the police. Police officers came and rescued the girls and subsequently arrested the fleeing Alhaji before transferring the case to NAPTIP through the Commissioner of Police, FCT, Command.
According to Ogbu, it was NAPTIP headquarters, Abuja that gave the Imo Command the mandate of arresting the suspect, having already been following up the matter since the attempt was leaked in Abuja.
When interviewed, the suspect agreed to having contacted the girls for the journey. He however insisted that his elder sister who is resident in Turkey requested for the girls and that it was done with the consent of the parents of the girls.
Fielding questions from newsmen, father of the victims, Mr. Dominic said both himself, his wife and other family members did not approve of the arrangement, but that his daughters insisted and later followed the suspect who accompanied them to Owerri, put them in a bus to Abuja and contacted the Alhaji who wanted to take them to Sokoto, from where they would have headed to Libya on road.
