Cross River: Police Quiz Couple, ‘Pastor’ Over Alleged Child Theft, Human Trafficking
By Uket Oka, Calabar
A couple, Mr and Mrs Idongesit Akpan, are currently in Police custody for allegedly stealing and trafficking two siblings, aged 3 and 5 years old.
Similar, a “pastor,” one Udo Eyop, was apprehended for allegedly trying to traffick three unsuspecting females to Libya by road through Katsina State.
Briefing journalists at the Cross River State Police Command Headquarters, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Augustine Grimah, said the victim, Mrs. Blessing Godday of 4 Obubra-Ikom road, was reportedly tricked to Akamkpa with the assurance of getting a job and she traveled from Obubra to Okomita in Akamkpa with two of her children aged 3 and 5 years.
“She tried reaching the suspect on phone but his lines were off. After waiting for hours at a popular junction, the suspect Idongesit Evanson Akpan, and wife, Angela Akpan, emerged from nowhere offering the victim and her two kids their apartment to pass the night.
“The next day, they were in Aba, Abia State, where the suspects had connived with a buyer who had already paid them N1.4million with a balance of N1.1 million.
“The suspects who are now in custody and under investigation confessed to the crime and will be charged to court as soon as investigation is completed,” CP Grimah said.
He further disclosed that a case of human trafficking was reported against one Pastor Victor Udo Eyop of Atamunu Street by Cross Roads Hotel in Calabar South, who allegedly with his wife lured one Deborah, 25 years, Anita Igri, 25 years and Mabel Bassey, 16, years for trafficking to Libya.
“They took three of the victims to a popular pharmacy for HIV test and other STDs before proceeding on the journey the next day.
“They [Pastor and wife] drove them to a park where they booked tickets for them to Kaduna, where they were further transported to Katsina to eventually take them to Niger Republic and onward to Libya, but they were initially told that they would be taken to Abuja where they would be issued Italian visa and they will be flown.
“Luck however ran out of the suspects as the vehicle conveying them from Kaduna to Katsina developed a fault.
“That was when they realized that the journey wasn’t what they bargained for, they met a POS operator who assisted them to find their way back to Calabar escaping from the faulty vehicle,” he said.
“We also arrested four for vandalising a transformer, two others for selling illicit substances.
“In all from January 2023, we have charged 399 cases to court, 19 cases conclusively prosecuted, 15 convictions, 4 discharged with 376 cases pending. While 328 cases are at the Federal High Court, 48 were transmitted to DPP,” Grimah stated.
