…42 children brought to Lagos without parent’s consent

The Lagos State Police Command has confirmed the rescue of additional six children from a suspected human trafficking syndicate operating in Kwara State. The Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin, in a statement yesterday said, on Tuesday, at about 12 p.m., “one Alima Akintola, 40, who has been assisting the Ijora Badia Police Division to rescue the remaining children illegally trafficked to Lagos State, brought the children to the police as promised.”

He said that children rescued (names withheld), were between the ages of 8 and 14. Hundeyin said that the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Ayoola Olawale, immediately contacted CSP Alice Leramo, the Officer in Charge of Anti- Human Trafficking Unit of Kwara Police Command. Hundeyin said that the Kwara Police Command had taken over the case of 12 children previously rescued from the suspect on Jan. 29, 2024. “She promised to dispatch the investigating team that came earlier to the Lagos Police Command to take over the children so as to enable Kwara command complete their investigation and reunite them with their parents.

“All together, 18 trafficked underage children from Kwara have been rescued in Lagos and handed over to the anti-trafficking unit of Kwara Command,” he said. It was reported that a suspected kingpin of child trafficking and labour syndicate, Akintola was arrested on Jan. 28 after three months of intelligence gathering by the police command.

Hundeyin had earlier told journalists that the syndicate usually bring underage children from the northern part of Nigeria to Lagos State for child labour and other illegal activities without the children parent’s approval. He said on January 25, a 45-yearold leader of the syndicate, Akintola of Molete Village, Ilorin, now in Kwara Police Command custody, “was arrested by detectives from the Ijora Badia Police Division in Lagos, who had monitored her movements.