A former driver identified as Onome has confessed to selling his friend’s child for N1.3 million and earning a combined N3.6 million from child trafficking operations across states before his arrest alongside his girlfriend and son in Onitsha by the Anambra State Police Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit.
He started with his friend’s child. The trust made it easy. The money made him stay.
A member of a child kidnapping and trafficking syndicate identified as Onome has confessed to police that his entry into child trafficking began when he sold the son of a personal friend — a child who suspected nothing because he knew his captor well — for N1.3 million, the largest single sum he had ever received in his life.
Arrested by operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) of the Anambra State Police Command following an intelligence-led investigation into missing children cases, Onome admitted earning a combined N3.6 million across two completed trafficking operations before his arrest at a hotel in Onitsha, where he was waiting with two more children for a handover contact who never arrived.
The Ebonyi State-born former driver blamed unemployment for drawing him into the network, telling investigators he lost his driving job after an extended absence and subsequently fell into contact with traffickers — including a woman who became his girlfriend and later his operational partner in the syndicate.
His confession revealed a structured operation: instructions delivered by phone, payments wired to his account, and organisers who rarely appeared in person. Children were moved across states in carefully coordinated handovers.
What made the case particularly chilling was the family dimension. Onome admitted that his own son assisted him during assignments, helping move children to designated pickup points. His girlfriend, whom he met through the trafficking network, handled coordination and communication.
The operation unravelled when VCRU operatives tracked the movement of two children to Onome’s Onitsha hotel room, arresting him, his girlfriend and his son before the handover could be completed.
The VCRU is a new tactical squad established by Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu specifically to tackle violent and organised crime, and the Anambra arrest represents one of its early operational successes since its creation.
NEWS NOW:
