Police Parade Pastor, Couple for Alleged Trafficking, Child Theft in Cross River

Calabar, Nigeria – The Cross River State Command of the Nigeria Police has paraded one Pastor Victor Udo Eyop for allegedly trying to traffick three unsuspecting females to Libya by road through Kastina State.

The Police also paraded a couple, Mr and Mrs Idongesit Akpan, for allegedly stealing and trafficking two children aged 3 and 5 years old.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after parading the suspects at the Command’s Headquarters in Calabar, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Augustine Grimah, said Pastor Eyop who resides at Atamunu Street by Cross Roads Hotel in Calabar South, and his wife, allegedly lured one Deborah, age 25, Anita Igri, age 25, and Mabel Bassey, age 16, for trafficking to Libya.

According to CP Grimah, “They [Pastor Eyop and Wife] took three of the victims to a popular pharmacy for HIV and other STD tests before proceeding on the journey the next day.

“They [Pastor and Wife] drove them [survivors] to a park where they booked tickets for them to Kaduna, where they were further transported to Kastina to eventually take them to the 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 [survivors] from Kaduna to Kastina developed a fault. That was when they realised that the journey wasn’t what they bargained for. They [survivors] then met a POS operator who assisted them to find their way back to Calabar, escaping from the faulty vehicle.”

Speaking further, CP Grimah said Mr and Mrs Idongesit Akpan’s victim, Mrs Blessing Godday of 4 Obubra/Ikom Road in Obubra, was reportedly tricked to Akamkpa with the assurance of getting a job, and she travelled down from Obubra to Okomita in Akamkpa with two of her children (aged 3 and 5 years).

The Police Commissioner said, “She [the victim] tried reaching the suspect on the phone, but his lines were off. After waiting for hours at a popular junction, the suspect, Idongesit Evanson Akpan, and his 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 N1.4 million 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 the investigation is completed.”

The CP also stated that the Command also arrested four persons for vandalising a transformer and two others for selling illicit substances.

He added that, “From January to date, 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.”