By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Police Personnel of the Family Support Unit (FSU) at Newton (4 Mile) Police Post, Waterloo Division, have arrested 21-year-old Zainab Marian Koroma of Five Mile Community, Newton (4 Mile) over alleged stealing of a 3-year-old boy Abu Bakarr Koroma of Blackhall Road, Coconut Farm, Eastend of Freetown.
The Waterloo Police acting on intelligence arrested the suspect on the 15th November, 2023.
Father of the stolen child, Abdul Koroma wept as he praised the Waterloo Police for reuniting him with his son after he had earlier reported a case of a missing child at the Ross Road Police Station in Freetown.
According to the Media Officer and Spokesperson of the Waterloo Police Division, Assistant Superintendent Alieu Jalloh, the suspect while confessing to “Child Stealing”, told the Police that she desperately needed a child of her own to prove her "womanhood" due to pressure she was getting from her boyfriend and the community. She’s been detained by the Police as investigations continue.
The Police and other Law enforcement agencies have been confronted with growing cases of child stealing and human trafficking in the country in recent times.
On the 13th of November this year, the Task Force of Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP) issued a public notice stating that Immigration Officers stationed at Jendema, along Sierra Leone’s border with Liberia intercepted 19 young women between the ages of 21 and 26 years.
It noted that all 19 women were found in possession of the country’s passports and questioned they revealed plans to travel to various destinations in West and North Africa, as well as the Middle East.
ATIP handed over the 19 women together with the driver who was arrested as a suspect, to the Sierra Leone Police Transnational Organized Crime Unit (TOCU), referencing the 2022 National Referral Mechanisms on Victim Protection. It stated that the objective of the referral was to thoroughly investigate whether the aforementioned young women were potential victims of a broader human trafficking and smuggling scheme.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (17/11/23)
