How A Couple Was Arrested At Abuja Airport For Child Trafficking

The issue of child trafficking in the country continues to evolve daily. It is a well-established fact that nearly all trafficked victims are children.
A new report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) indicates that over half of child trafficking victims are trafficked within their home country.
It was a dramatic scene at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport on Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, when one Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama and his wife Mrs Stella Iyama attempted to smuggle a six-year-old child (name withheld) out of the country without the father’s consent and in clear violation of a court order (contempt of court) that the child in question not leave Nigeria’s shores.
According to a private investigator who was assigned to track down the couple. According to the child’s father, “to perfect their criminal activities, the identification of the innocent little girl was changed from the name she was given at birth to Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama in the international passport I had previously procured for her, claiming that the father of the little girl has died while the father is still alive.”
The surprising thing is that the little girl has two valid passports with different names.”
However, if Mr Godfrey’s claims are correct, why change the child’s name, which is completely different from the name on her first passport? Even if the father has died, does this change the girl’s identity? The girl’s father stated that many questions are begging to be answered.
He stated, “If not for God, the quick intervention of the immigration officer, and the proactiveness of the local investigator at the airport, they would have boarded the Qatar Airways flight to Birmingham International Airport with the child.”
The immigration officer at the airport arrested and detained them before handing them over to airport security, who investigated and determined that they were guilty of child trafficking.”
He went on to say, “This singular incident should open our eyes as Nigerian citizens to irregularities in our data system and how those tasked with keeping records should be on top of their game.” In a country where the system works, the same person can’t have two different identifications; however, in a country where anything goes, it is very possible.
Our correspondent met with the child’s biological father, who recounted the entire story. He said, “I married Shulamite on November 28, 2017.” We welcomed our child on August 16, 2018. In 2021, I confronted her multiple times about my suspicions that she was being unfaithful to me, but she denied it. Finally, In April 2021, she confessed to sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. We took a pregnancy test after not sleeping together for over a year, and she came back positive. A few weeks later, she informed me that she had removed the child, and when I reported the incident to the church, they invited her, and she fled my house with my three-year-old daughter while I was still at work.”
He went on to say, “For more than a year, she refused to tell me where she was with my baby. I was forced to apply for custody of the child. She also applied for custody. In court, she claimed that I used to beat her, but the court found no such evidence, only evidence of her fingernails on my neck when she held me down while I was sleeping. The judge determined that we should both share custody of the child. The child will be with her during the school year and with me during the holidays. And neither of us should take the baby outside of Nigeria. They have violated the court injunction by consistently denying me access to my child until now.”
He claimed that “in addition, my father-in-law, Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama conspired with his wife Stella Iyama and their daughter Shulamite Ewoma Ozo-Oyama to change my daughter’s NIN and fraudulently obtain another international passport for her.”
All attempts to speak with Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama to hear his side of the story failed, though the case is now being handled by NAPTIP.