Air Peace’s personnel have again demonstrated strong vigilance and crime alertness by foiling a trafficking attempt of two babies by a man and woman at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Terminal 2, Lagos.
The spokesman of the airline, Mr Stanley Olisa, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.
Olisa said the 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 on Monday.
“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
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 trafficked children for adoption.”
Olusa quoted the police to have agreed to transfer the case to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations and action.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Air Peace crew had similarly prevented two child trafficking attempts in June 2018 on a Lagos–Banjul flight and in January 2019 on a Lagos-Port Harcourt flight respectively. (NAN)
