Seven women who feigned blindness arrested for child trafficking in Delta
Seven women have been arrested in warri by men of the Delta state police command for offenses of trafficking children and turning them into street beggars.
According to reports, the 22 children who have been rescued by the state government were deceitfully taken from their parents in the South Eastern states of Anambra, Abia, Imo and Ebonyi. They were taken with the promise of sending them to school in Delta.
Mrs Oghenekevwe Agas, the permanent secretary ministry of women affairs, while speaking to newsmen in Asaba said that instead of sending them to school, the children were turned into street beggers while the suspects feigned blindness.
Acccording to her the victims and the suspects were coveyed to the state capital on Tuesday and handed over to the State police command. She added that the suspects would face prosecution according to the state Child Rights Act while the state government would make deliberate efforts to reunite the victims with their respective families.
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“FIDA drew our attention to the fact that there were some children on Airport Road, Warri, begging, and that three of them went specifically to a lady that sells close by who told them that some women brought them to Warri to beg, but that they actually told their parents that they were bringing them to school.
And since they came to Warri, they have been begging and sleeping on the streets. In addition to FIDA, our officers went to the police and we got the police to arrest them.
We rescued 22 children and arrested seven women who feigned blindness. Upon investigation, we discovered that the women were not even blind but were just feigning it and using the children to beg on the streets.
So we brought them to Asaba and we are taking them to the police headquarters.
We are going to reunite the children with their families in their respective states. The children are from Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia state, that is what we have been able to establish.
The women would be prosecuted because there is a Child Right Law in Delta State that prohibits begging and exploitation of children. Even NAPTIP would be involved in this because it has to do with trafficking,” Agas said.
