AIR PEACE PERSONNEL FOIL CHILD TRAFFICKING SCHEME
By Yunus Yusuf
Nigeria’s leading airline Air Peace’s personnel have again demonstrated strong vigilance and crime alertness by foiling the attempt to traffick two babies by a man and a woman on June 7, 2021, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Terminal 2, Lagos.
This information is contained in a statement issued by the Spokesperson of the airline, Stanley Olisa and made available to TBI Africa in Lagos on tyTuesd.
Olisa revealed that Air Peace’s Passenger Service Executives and Security Personnel smelt a rat when the two adults, travelling to Asaba, were being checked-in at the counter.
The statement reads: “On June 7, 2021, at MMA2, around 12:00 hours, a man and a woman, carrying two babies, approached our counter for check-in. Our Passenger Service Executive, being suspicious of the duo’s behaviour, 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 3 months old each, were further questioned by another counter attendant and a security personnel but they gave a different narrative. “The two adults gave conflicting explanations to different staff- that the babies were being taken to United Kingdom to unite them with their parents and later they said they were sending the babies to Zimbabwe for adoption”, he added, while also commending the staff for preventing the crime.
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 they were agents who traffick children for adoption. The Police said they would transfer the case to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and action.
It would be recalled that Air Peace crew prevented two child trafficking schemes in June 2018 on a Lagos–Banjul flight and in January 2019 on a Lagos-Port Harcourt flight respectively.
