Ughelli scores another ugly criminal mark as Police dislodge human trafficking hub in town

* Arrest 1 suspect and 35 others

* 23 victims teenage girls

By Jon Egie

Another ugly criminal mark has been recorded in Ughelli as the Police in a deft and bold action identified and dislodged a human trafficking hub operating in the town.

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All female victims of the crime holed in the hub were apprehended by the police as one of the operators of the hub were arrested while the prime suspect is on the run.

The development is in the wake of the State’s Commissioner of Police, CP Abaniwonda Olufemi identification of Ughelli as a hotspot for armed robbery and kidnapping prompting the police boss to create and deploy a special squad led by ASP Julius Robinson to tackle the violent crimes and criminals in that axis of the State.

While so many successful espionage and crime bust operations have been credited to the special squad with the expectation of a reduced crime rate, another ugly criminal mark was scored when acting on credible intel about the existence of a human trafficking hub in town, the CP deployed an award winning police officer, the DPO of Ekpan Divission, CSP Aliyu Shaba to undertake the task of dislodging the criminal hub and apprehend its operators .

According the the Intel, the prime suspect identified simply as Chinyere was in the business of luring women and teenage girls from the Eastern part of the country to Ughelli on the pretext of engaging them as sales girls in restaurants and drinking bars with a pay of N30,000 per month only to be told on arrival that the available job was prostitution.

Two of the victims who were innocently lured by the prime suspect, rejected the prostitution job offer and were thrown out of the hotel which was the hub of the crime.

The defectors spread the word around and getting a wind of it, CP Abaniwonda mobilised a crack team headed by CSP Aliyu Shaba to locate the hub and dislodge it.

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So, last week Monday, July 15, the police successfully located the crime scene identified as ‘Big Dafe Hotel’ along Ughelli/Patani Road where one Chioma Edafe ‘f’, 36, of Umuogbezea Community in Imo State who runs the hotel and 35 others among who were 23 teenage girls were arrested.