NEDU MARK, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Command of the Department of State Service (DSS) has paraded three pastors of the Assemblies of God Church and a woman as suspects in a child trafficking case in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital.
The woman who claims to run a private school in the state capital was among the suspects nabbed by DSS operatives as the child trafficking syndicate in the city.
The command also paraded 36 children whose ages range from five to 12 years, rescued from homes where they were been used as househelps.
Addressing journalists at the state headquarters, the DSS Assistant State Director of Security, Mr. Friday Onuche, said the children were rescued from homes in Yenagoa and Kiama in Bayelsa state, Enugu-Agidi in ANambra state and Port-Harcourt in Rivers state after investigations.
He said the syndicate operates under the guise of missionaries and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and target vulnerable children largely from the Northern part of the country.
Among the places targeted by these traffickers are Zuru ethnic group in Kebbi and Zamfara states and Zaria in Kaduna states where they approach the poor parents to permit the innocent children to travel out under the guise of assisting them in getting good education.
Mr. Onuche said these children rather than go to school as promised always end up as house helps or hawkers on the streets.
“There is the need therefore, for members of the public to be sensitized on the need to be circumspect in the way they give their children away or take in children to such unsuspecting modern slave traders.”
DSS gave the names of the pastors as Pastor Dauda Nurugada (32 years old) from Kebbi state, Pastor Anthony Anthony Onwebeyi (53 years old) from Anambra state and Reverend Benaalim Isa-Garba (43 years old) from Kaduna state while Mrs Tombra Alazigha (38 years old) school proprietor was among the suspect paraded.
Speaking to newsmen, Pastor Anthony Onwebeyi, who confirmed that he has been arrested for the same offense but released after investigations by the Anambra state police command, said he was not a trafficker but a missionary whose mission was to help children get back to school. He said he only collected token as transport fares from those who eventually he takes custody of their kids.
While the woman, Mrs Tombra Alazigha, who said she runs both a private school and an NGO for vulnerable children, said she had six of the children in her custody and they were all brought to her by the pastors.
She however denied using them as housemaids, saying that they attend her school together with her other six children from her meagre earning from being a civil servant and a school proprietor.
She equally showed journalists a photograph of one of the girls in school uniform and also letters purportedly signed by the parents of the children.
However, one of the children who simply identified her name as Jessica, (12 years old) said she was used for menial jobs like farm work, hawking while she was denied access to school even though she was already in JSS 2 back home.
The little girl said though her parents knew that were taken away, ‘they do not know that they are being used as houseboys and house girls in the city.’
