Police parade man arrested with 12 stolen children

- The Nasarawa state police command said they have rescued 12 children from a suspected child trafficker

- The man, identified as Nuhu Adams claims he is an evangelist

- The children were between the ages of six to 17

The Nasarawa state police command said they have rescued 12 children from a suspected child trafficker.

The man, identified as Nuhu Adams who denied the police claims, stated that he is an evangelist, Daily Sun reports.

Parading the suspect, the Nasarawa state 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.

According to the police boss, the suspect was found with the children in his Peugeot tation wagon car with registration No AA 273 ANW at a church in Karu local government area of the state, from where he was arrested.

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He said in the cause of investigation, the police also recovered four other children Adams had earlier sold in Abuja and Jos, even as he said the children have been rescued and had since been reunited with their parents.

His words: “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.”

Adams however disputed the police boss claims, he said he was providing welfare support to displaced persons across the country and that the children found with him were not stolen

“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,” he said.

He also said he trained the children under a non-profit organisation named Fellowship of Internally Displaced Persons/ Refugees, which he said was registered in 2014.

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Meanwhile, the Adamawa state police have confirmed the killing of three police officers after an attack by armed men in Demsa local government area.

Othman Abubakar, the Adamawa police spokesperson, also confirmed that two other officers went missing after the attack.