Mr. and Mrs. Idongesit are presently being held by the police on charges of stealing and trafficking two siblings, ages three and five (names withheld).
Similarly, a “pastor,” one Udo Eyop, was apprehended for allegedly trying to traffick three unsuspecting females to Libya by road through Kastina 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 down from Obubra to Okomita in Akamkpa with two of her children aged 3 and 5 years.
“She 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 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,” 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 Deborah, 25 years old, Anita Igri, 25 years old, and Mabel Bassey, 16 years old, for trafficking to Libya.
“They took three of the victims to a popular pharmacy for HIV tests and other STDs before proceeding on the journey the next day.
“They (the pastor and wife) drove them 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 an Italian visa, and they would 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 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 and 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, and 376 cases pending. While 328 cases are at the Federal High Court, 48 were transmitted to DPP,” Grimah states.
