Police arrest woman with 16 children

The police in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, arrested a well-known businesswoman after she was found with 16 minors suspected to be victims of child trafficking, local newspapers reported on Wednesday. The reports said the children, aged between one year and four years, were hidden behind plastic crates in a mini-bus and were discovered during a routine police search at a checkpoint. The bus driver told police the businesswoman (names withheld) asked him to take the children to her home. A Lagos newspaper, ‘The Guardian’, reported that the woman told police interrogators that the children had been rescued from destitutes and drug addicts. She told police she “adopted” the children out of humanitarian concern. The police are investigating the woman’s claims, the paper said.