FOUR MEN ARRESTED FOR TRADING IN HUMAN PARTS

Leader of the four teenagers recently caught with human parts by vigilante youths in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Edet Ikot, has denied being a dealer in human parts, saying he only stumbled on a human skull in an uncompleted building where he was paid to cut grasses in Oron.

Ikot said his friends suggested they should look for a buyer, so they approached a native doctor.

“One of us suggested that we take it to a native doctor in Mbo. The four of us went together but on our way, we were held by a youth leader. After conducting a search and the skull was found on me, he called the police. That is why we are here. But the truth remains that I am not a human parts dealer. I have never sold human parts before and I will never sell human parts,” he said.

But Ikot’s claim, or counter-claim as the case might be, is already history as he and the other three have been in police custody and are waiting to be charged to court for trading in human parts.

Until the court determines whether he and the other three are guilty or not of the offence, Ikot’s insistence of innocence is just his words against that of the vigilante youths who apprehended them.

Ikot, 17, hails from Edeabasi in Oron local government area and is presumed the leader of the four. Others are Ubong Udong (18) from Oron, Bright Effiong Okon (19) from Orukim in Mbo LGA and Okon Ita (20) also from Orukim.

Meanwhile, the Akwa-Ibom State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Delia Nwawe, said the suspects were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Akwa-Ibom State Police Command when they went looking for a buyer.

Nwawe, who spoke on behalf of the Commissioner, Murtala Mani, noted that officers of the CID of the command upon receiving an alert from youths in the area, sprang into action and arrested the teens.

She said the officers and men of the command were handy 24 hours in all the nooks and crannies of the state to abate, arrest and bring criminals to book, hence the need for members of the public to avail the police of necessary information to make the state crime free.

 A woman in Mbo LGA, Idongesit Bassey, said she knows two of the boys and could vouch that they are not delinquents. According to her, she will go along with Ikot’s claim of stumbling on the skull in an uncompleted building, adding that if the boys have been dealing in human parts they should have had regular buyers and known where to locate them rather than shopping around for one.
The boys were silly though, she said, and as a result they have been branded body part dealers. She urged the police to deepen their investigation before the case is charged to court.