Air Peace staff intercept couple trafficking babies

Personnel of Air Peace Airline have foiled an attempted trafficking of two babies at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The two babies were rescued from a man and a woman on June 7, 2021, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Terminal 2, Lagos.

• NDLEA intercepts 37.3kg drugs at Lagos airport, arrests 7
• Twitter suspension: SERAP takes Buhari govt to ECOWAS court

It was learnt that the duo were travelling to Asaba when they were intercepted at the check-in counter of the airline.

Spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa, who confirmed the incident revealed that Air Peace’s passenger service executives and Security Personnel became suspicious when the two passengers were being checked-in at the counter.

They were said to have given conflicting reports on the babies.

In a statement, he said: “On June 7, 2021, at MMA2, around 12:00 pm, a man and a woman, carrying two babies, approached our counter for check-in. Our passenger service executive, being suspicious of the duo’s behaviour, questioned them about the babies. They said the babies belonged to them and they were travelling to Asaba”.

Olisa said as the suspicion intensified, the two passengers, who said the babies were three months old each, were further questioned by another counter attendant and a security personnel but they gave a  different narrative.

He said, “The two adults gave conflicting explanations to different staff that the babies were being taken to the United Kingdom to unite them with their parents but later said they were sending the babies to Zimbabwe for adoption.

“Upon further questioning, the adults confessed that they were not the parents of the babies.

“Consequently, Air Peace’s security unit took both of them to the MMA2 police station where they admitted they were agents who trafficked children for adoption.”

The police said they would transfer the case to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation.

It would be recalled that Air Peace crew prevented two child trafficking schemes in June 2018 on a Lagos-Banjul flight and in January 2019 on a Lagos-Port Harcourt flight respectively.