By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – Personnel of Air Peace on Monday scuttled the trafficking of two babies via the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Terminal 2, Lagos.
The vigilant staff of the airline were said to have suspected foul play when a man and a woman travelling with the babies gave conflicting accounts of their destinations.
The Spokesman of the airline, Mr Stanley Olisa, said in a statement issued on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, that the suspects were Asaba-bound from Lagos.
Olisa said: “On June 7 at MMA2, around 1200 hours, a man and a woman, carrying two babies, approached our counter for check-in.
”Our passenger service executives, being suspicious of the behaviours of the duo, questioned them about the babies. They said the babies belonged to them and were travelling to Asaba.”
Olisa disclosed that as the suspicion intensified, the two adults, who hinted that the babies were three months old each, were further questioned by another counter attendant and a security personnel but they gave different narratives.
“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 and later they 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 that they are agents who traffic children for adoption.”
Olisa added that the police will transfer the case to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations and action.
In June 2018, an Air Peace crew similarly prevented two child trafficking attempts on a Lagos–Banjul flight and in January 2019, on a Lagos-Port Harcourt flight.