The Edo Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has apprehended a woman masquerading as a Reverend sister, accused of trafficking 38 children in Delta State.
Identified as Ikejimba Maryvianney, alias Oluchi, aged 40, the suspect, along with an accomplice named Chidera, who is currently at large, purportedly delivered the children to two orphanage homes, ostensibly for better care.
The children, reportedly entrusted to the suspects by their parents within a farm community in Enugu-Awka camp by Monastery, Ilah, Delta State, were rescued following a tip-off leading to Maryvianney’s arrest.
Confirming the incident, NAPTIP’s Zonal Commander in Benin, Nduka Nwanwenne, affirmed that the suspect was in custody. Maryvianney allegedly claimed to have received training as a Reverend sister in Ghana, with their headquarters located in the Philippines.
According to Nwanwenne, Maryvianney convinced parents to entrust their children to them under the guise of providing improved care. The suspects even went to lengths to persuade parents by allowing two of them to witness the children’s placement in the orphanages.
Of the 38 children, 32 have been recovered by NAPTIP, while six, aged between three and six years old, remain unaccounted for. Maryvianney purportedly disclosed that three of the missing children are in Badagry, and the other three in Ogun State, claiming they were adopted by individuals in the East.