The Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL) has raised the alarm over the delay in the prosecution of the two women arrested in connection with the trafficking of five children from Sokoto.
The suspects who were intercepted and arrested in Abuja on April, 27,2024 were brought to the Sokoto Police Command for investigation and prosecution.
“Since that time, nothing has been heard about the case,” the National President of NACTAL, Abdulganiyu Abubakar, lamented in a press conference in Sokoto.
He, however, described the delay as worrisome, quoting the popular adage “Justice delayed is justice denied”.
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He wondered why the case was not handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) for further action in line with the Palermo Protocol definition of human trafficking.
“We are aware that, NAPTIP, Sokoto Zonal office has written to the Sokoto State Police Command on May 6, 2024, requesting the transfer of the case.
“We hereby request the Sokoto State Police Command to ensure the prompt handover of the perpetrators to NAPTIP for diligent prosecution,” he said
NACTAL also urged NAPTIP to ensure perpetrators of trafficking in the state were arrested and prosecuted.
Abubakar, however, commended the Edo State Police Command and the state’s NAPTIP for their swift responses in the case involving a 4-year-old girl in the state.
Daily Trust reported how the children, between the ages of two and three, with the exception of a baby of about two weeks old, were brought to Abuja from Sokoto by a female police officer, in collaboration with another woman, in what appeared to be a case of abduction.
It was gathered that one of the women went to a Sokoto motor park, and paid for three seats, while the other joined the 18-seater commercial bus alongside the five kids.
It was further learnt that the prime suspect, Kulu Dogonyaro, an indigene of Zuru LGA of Kebbi State, serves at the Juvenile Women and Children’s Unit in the Kubwa Police Division, and lives with the second suspect, Elizabeth Oja, in the Mopol Barracks, Dei-Dei, Abuja.
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