Police uncover illegal blood bank in Lagos, recover 7 pints

The Lagos State Police Command has smashed a syndicate that specialized in the sale of blood which it obtained from children.

The gang allegedly operated from a one-room apartment located at 18 Kusa Bus stop Bariga, Lagos.

A 45-year-old man, Achegbulu Paul, whom the police described as the gang leader was arrested. He is being detained at the homicide unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti Street, Yaba.

The Commissioner of Police Lagos State, Imohimi Edgal, who confirmed the arrest said about seven pints of blood criminally taken from some teenagers in the area were also recovered.

Edgal said Paul was arrested after he allegedly drew four pints of blood from a 17-yearold Ayomide Adesanya on Monday June 4 and Sunday June 10. He said the suspect took two pints each on the two days.

It was gathered that the medical lab technician was said to have lured under aged kids and paid them N2,000 each while he sold the blood at N7,000 per pint.

According to the PPRO Lagos, SP Chike Oti, the CP led operatives of the command to Bariga to see the blood bank and paid a visit to the victim at hospital after the case got to the command.

“The illegal blood bank was uncovered after the last victim was hospitalised. Adesanya became weak after donating four pints of blood, collapsed and is currently receiving treatment at the Bariga Hospital.

“The mother told us that the daughter’s friend informed them of Adesanya’s condition after she saw him on a bike looking like a corpse,” Oti said, adding that upon arrest, the illegal blood vendor confessed to selling blood to a hospital in Lagos for N7,000.

The suspect alleged that the victim told him that he was 20 years old. “It was until the parents came to confront me that I knew he was 17,” he said.

Paul, a Benue State indigene, said he was trained as a lab scientist at the Nigerian Institute of Science Technology in Plateau. “I am a trained technician and I’ve been operating the illegal blood bank for five years now,” he said.