Vigilant crew of the Air Peace airline on Monday foiled child trafficking deal of a three-month-old baby boy by two women onboard the airline’s Lagos-Banjul flight.
National Daily gathered that the suspected traffickers ran out of luck mid-flight when the airline’s crew noticed a baby crying inconsolably.
It was said that efforts by one of the suspected traffickers, who claimed to be the baby’s mother, to soothe him failed.
When the crew suggested to the suspected trafficker to breastfeed the baby, she declined.
Scared that the baby’s cries were attracting attention, the woman who claimed to be his mother requested for water from the crew. The crew, however, noticed that the alleged mother was fumbling in giving the baby the water.
Suspicious that the baby was either stolen or being trafficked, the crew summoned the alleged traffickers to the back of the aircraft for questioning. The alleged traffickers allegedly told the crew members that the baby was a child from a surrogacy arrangement.
Dissatisfied with the alleged mother’s response, the crew notified Air Peace team at the Banjul International Airport in The Gambia of the development.
When the flight landed in Banjul, Air Peace staff accosted the two alleged traffickers. When the two women were separately questioned on investigation, they gave conflicting accounts of how they came about the baby.
Air Peace staff in Banjul, it was gathered; quickly called for the intervention of Banjul International Airport (BIA) Police Station in The Gambia and the suspected traffickers were promptly arrested.
National Daily also gathered that medical tests conducted by security operatives in Banjul showed no relationship between the baby and the woman who claimed to be his mother.
The two women were also gathered to have later claimed that the baby was being taken to his father in Banjul. The alleged father, it was gathered, told security operatives that the baby was his. He, however, could not provide documents to the police in Banjul to prove his claim.
Security operatives in Banjul asked the father to undertake a DNA test to prove his claim.
The alleged father told the police that the DNA test would be conducted in Nigeria, it was learnt. The Gambia Police were said to have rejected the alleged father’s decision to do the test in Nigeria, insisting they could not trust the medical result from the country.
Police in Banjul, therefore, insisted on the DNA test being conducted in The Gambia.