The police command in Anambra has detained a suspected 63-year-old woman, Ngozi Muotuanya, over involvement in interstate child trafficking.

The suspect was arrested by police operatives attached to Oba Division.

The command’s spokesman, Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

“In a decisive move to unravel the mysterious disappearance of children in the state, especially in Oba and its environs, police operatives attached to the Oba Division on August 11, acting on credible intelligence, apprehended one Ngozi Muotuanya, a female from Awkuzu-Oba, aged 63 years old.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that sometime in 2024, the suspect allegedly stole a one-year-old male child in Minna, Niger, and sold him to an unsuspecting member of the public in Anambra.

“The said suspect later resold the child to another person. However, on August 4, the receiver, upon realising that the child had been stolen, returned him to the principal suspect. The suspect, in turn, allegedly abandoned the child at an unascertained church in Minna, where he was rescued by the leader of the Igbo community in Minna,” he said.

Mr Ikenga stated that the command has forwarded information regarding the child’s custodian in Minna to the Niger State police command.

He said that police would facilitate possible recovery and reunification with the child’s parents, as well as take other necessary actions.

He added that the suspect will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Awka for a thorough investigation and subsequent prosecution.

(NAN)