The Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Department's Special Tactical Squad has announced the busting of a Port Harcourt-based child trafficking syndicate allegedly led by a 66-year-old medical doctor. The suspects were paraded in Abuja as part of the announcement.
According to the commander of the Special Tactical Squad, Victor Ogbede, the syndicate specialised in swapping babies for a fee, carrying out the practice without the knowledge of the unsuspecting mothers involved.
Among the disturbing details revealed at the parade, police said an embalmed dead child, preserved with chemicals to make it appear fresh, was recovered from the office of the doctor at the centre of the alleged syndicate.
Police also paraded the alleged leader of a separate kidnapping syndicate, who they said was arrested while on his way to board a flight, presenting both cases as recent successes for the unit.
The doctor, who remains a suspect pending the outcome of the investigation, claimed she was only assisting distressed families to have children, saying mothers would deliver and the child would be given to foster parents in exchange for money. She described such cases as rare, occurring perhaps once in three or four years.
As investigations continue, the police have called on all women who gave birth at a hospital in Port Harcourt over the last eight years to report to the nearest Special Tactical Squad command nationwide and share their experiences, in an effort to establish the full scale of the alleged trafficking.