Human Traffickers Abduct Three Children in Benue

Less than three days after the Department of State Services and the Benue State Security Council paraded six children rescued from kidnappers, three other children between the ages of three and six have been abducted by gunmen in the Adeke area of Makurdi, Benue State.

The Benue State Police Command, on Friday, paraded an alleged kidnapper, Amos Etubi, who was said to be a student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, along with 18 others accused of armed robbery and car-snatching in various parts of the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Moses Yamu, who paraded the suspects at the Police Headquarters, Makurdi, said Etubi was arrested after kidnapping one Usman Abdul Akwu, a businessman.

The suspect, who was said to be a 200-level student, was reportedly arrested while trying to take the ransom dropped by the family of the victim at the South Core junction on the university premises.

According to Yamu, an alleged human trafficker with dual citizenship of Nigeria and Cameroon, Israel Lame, was also arrested while trying to board a vehicle to Lagos State with two young girls aged 20 and 24.

An eyewitness told SUNDAY PUNCH that the latest victims of kidnapping in the state were a boy and two of his sisters, who were abducted on their way to their family’s vegetable farm along the road in the early hours of penultimate Saturday.

According the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, two persons alighted from a vehicle with guns, ordered the children into the car and drove towards Adoka and Ankpa Road.

The eyewitness said, “I thought they were customers because I was also on my vegetable farm and customers sometimes stop to buy leaves from us. When I saw them, I did not suspect anything until they were being taken into the car and they were shouting. I also started shouting and running away but before people could help, they (the gunmen) had gone.”

Yamu confirmed the incident in an interview with our correspondent, adding that the police had launched an investigation into the case.