An officer of the Nigeria Customs Service simply identified as Azeez and his wife have been arrested by the Ogun State Police for allegedly buying a set of 4 day-old twin babies for N500,000 in the Sango Ota, Ogun state.
According to Punch Metro the couple were arrested by the Sango Police Division last Thursday and the babies have since been recovered from them and the couple have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Command headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta.
A police source said:
“The incident happened last Thursday. The police got a tip-off that the couple had gone to Ibadan, Oyo State, to buy twin babies for N500,000. We then moved in on them and discovered it was true.
The twins were just four days old on the day of the arrest. We have not seen the parents yet.
Azeez said in his statement that he and his wife already had a child together but they had tried to have a second child for 23 years and so they decided to purchase the twins. The suspect told the police that he paid N500, 000 for the babies.
The babies were with the police until Friday, when they were transferred to Abeokuta.
The suspects were taken to the anti-kidnapping section of the SCID. The parents of the babies haven’t shown up to claim them but the police said the babies are doing very fine.
The Ogun State Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the arrest. He added that investigations were still ongoing.
He said:
“The arrest is true. The case has been transferred to the SCID, and it is being handled by the Anti-human trafficking department. The suspects are still undergoing investigation. During our investigations, we will get across to the parents and find out the circumstances that led to the disappearance of their babies.
We will also get across to the NCS authorities to show the level of complicity of their officer. I cannot disclose the suspect’s name, because we are still investigating. He was arrested with the wife.
Punch