The Police command in Kano has paraded one Muhammad Ahmad, a national of Cameroon, for allegedly trafficking 26 persons.
The victims, our correspondent observed, are non Nigerians, as none of them could neither speak English nor any of the Nigerian indigenous languages.
The Kano state Commissioner of Police, Habu A. Sani, who paraded the suspect along with other 172 criminals arrested in the state recently, alleged that the suspect was trafficking his victims both to some of the West, North and Central African countries for slavery and prostitution.
He said the suspect was arrested at his residence where the said victims, comprising 2 kids, 22 men and 2 women were rescued.
The CP said the victims would be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for necessary action while the command progresses with the investigation.
Speaking to Daily Trust however, the suspect denied the allegation, saying the persons allegedly rescued from his residence were travellers from his home country on their way to Niger Republic.
According to him, “I am a Cameroonian from Yaunde, but before I came to Nigeria, I was living in Garwa in the northern part of the country before a civil unrest erupted there and many of us fled. I initially took refuge in Yola before I eventually moved to Kano where I got into currency exchange.
“For six year, I had been into this business and many of the Cameroonian travellers going to Niger Republic and Algeria do stay with me before they proceed. It was in that business I became used to some of them and they started staying in my rented house to conclude their plan for the journey. It was in this process that myself, and these people were arrested by the police,” he claimed.
