A woman (named withheld) has been arrested by the Delta State Police Command for allegedly trafficking a 15-year-old girl to Ivory Coast, Punch Newspaper reports.

The teenager, a student of Ugnomro secondary school, Ugnomro in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State was said to have been acting strangely before she absconded.

A family source told our correspondent that their daughter started behaving strangely in September 2020, before she ran away.

“Suddenly, the child started behaving strangely. She ran out of the house to Alaka area to stay and after she was brought back, she went there again. We were thinking something must have gone wrong as this was not ordinary.”

“We took her to the General hospital at Ekpan but the doctor who examined her said she was normal. At that point, we took her to the church for deliverance for two days and her behaviour was normal and we were happy.”

Suddenly again, she ran out of the house to Alaka again, that was the last time we saw her. The next thing was a call from her in Lagos and later Ivory Coast.

“When borders were reopened in December, the syndicate started calling her mother’s phone number demanding for money before they could send her back to Nigeria.”

“So, several efforts were made to get our daughter back through the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons as we also reported the matter to the police”

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, on Sunday confirmed the incident, adding that a woman has been arrested in connection with the alleged trafficking of some girls in Uvwie and Orerokpe.

She stated that some of the reported cases at the Ebrumede police station were transferred to Orerokpe Division, and would be transferred to the state command for further investigation