World

Cops Guard Refugee Community in Nigeria After Daily Beast Child Abduction Exposé

REACTION

It was revealed this week that a number of children have been abducted from the refugee community.

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Philip Obaji Jr. / The Daily Beast

Police officers are guarding the gates of the Adagom refugee settlement in Nigeria's southeastern Cross River State Saturday after The Daily Beast reported this week that a teen girl in the settlement was advertised on Facebook and sold to a human trafficker and a 10-month-old baby was stolen from his mother in the same community. “We read the report by The Daily Beast and so we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again in the settlement,” said Princewill Ayim, Director-General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, which manages the settlement. “Security personnel are now screening visitors entering the settlement.” In addition, said Ayim, the government has “engaged secret policemen in plainclothes to monitor movements in and around the settlement.” A senior officer in the police division in Ogoja, the town where Adagom is located, told The Daily Beast that investigations into the sale of the girl advertised on Facebook and the child stolen from his mother “are currently ongoing.” Four refugees confirmed to The Daily Beast via phone that half a dozen policemen were seen at the gate on Saturday morning.

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