Nasarawa Police arrest man with 12 stolen children

From Linus Oota, Lafia
Nasarawa State Police Command said they have rescued 12 children from a suspected child trafficker, identified as Nuhu Adams. Adam claims he is an evangelist.
Parading the suspect, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Bello, said his men received intelligence report on December 16, 2016 that the suspect had in his custody eight children between the ages of six and 17.
He said the suspect was found with the children in his Peugeot Station Wagon car with Registration No AA 273 ANW at a church in Mararaba Karu Local Government Area of the state, from where he was arrested.
Bello added that in the cause of investigation, the police also recovered four other children Adams had earlier sold in Abuja and Jos, adding the children had since been reunited with their parents.
According to the police boss, “The suspect used to go to IDPs camps in Taraba State to collect children from parents with the promise of educating them. Police were able to recover four children he had earlier sold in Abuja and Jos.
“The suspect was arrested after one warrant officer, Auta Isah, reported to the police that the suspected trafficker came to their church premises with a Peugeot station car marked AA 273 ANW with eight children between the ages of six and 17 years and was sharing them to some individuals.”
But the suspect told our correspondent that he was providing welfare support to displaced persons across the country and that the children found with him were not stolen
According to him, “I was in Nasarawa State to save children who were displaced by Boko Haram insurgency and those neglected by the government, dying in poverty at various IDPs camps across the nation.
“I have been touring under the Christian Association of Nigeria and I went to Taraba State and they gave me permission to assist those in need.”
Adams denied trafficking in children, saying he had never sold any child as alleged by the police, adding that he trained the children under a non-profit organisation, Fellowship of Internally Displaced Persons/ Refugees, which was registered in 2014