Recently, luck ran out on a child trafficking syndicate in Asaba, Delta State, when the police arrested one of the kingpins in the illicit trade, 32-year-old Abigail Nwakanma.
Nwakanma was allegedly running a well-coordinated trafficking cartel that specialises in the stealing and selling of minors in the area.
An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said that the illicit human trafficking trade had fetched Nwakanma and her collaborators big fortunes, which they had lived off until the long arm of the law caught up with them.
Nwakama, an indigene of Okpanam, Asaba, Delta State was alleged to have been working with a cleric, Pastor Chinedu Strongson of Ogidi in Anambra State to perpetrate the crime.
The alleged leader of the child-stealing syndicate, Nwakama, popularly known as Cash Madam had all along been hiding under the guise of a business woman to perpetrate the crime.
The drinking bar is just a façade, which she uses to pull to wool over peoples’ eyes, as her main source of income is the elaborate and well-coordinated child stealing racket she’s involved in
She is the proprietress of a drinking bar at the Stop Abortion Junction in Okpanam, Asaba, but according to an eye witness, “The drinking bar is just a façade, which she uses to pull to wool over peoples’ eyes, as her main source of income is the elaborate and well-coordinated child stealing racket she’s involved in.”
But following a tip-off, the police in Asaba arrested her and during interrogation, she confessed to committing the heinous crime. She said that she had been in the illicit business along with Pastor Strongson, who regularly purchased the stolen children from her.
Nwakanma was also said to have led police detectives to Ogidi in Anambra State to apprehend her alleged accomplice, 48-year-old Strongman, who is the pastor of Gospel Fire Ministry. Twelve suspected stolen children were said to have been rescued from Strongman.
Other suspects allegedly involved in the child trafficking racket included Nnoruka Obioma, 21; Ifeoma Anyadike 32; David Ikesinachi, Ebere Edwin, Adaeze Enyi, 22; Chike Agwunenu, 55; and Onyinye Nwakama, the prime suspect’s 11-year-old daughter.
Out of the twelve rescued children, the parents of two of them have come forward to claim their children while the ten others were sent to St. Barnabas Orphanage, Asaba, pending identification by their families.
Pastor Strongson allegedly paid N400,000 for each child sold to him.
