Couple arrested for allegedly selling their child for N1 million

The Anambra State Government has arrested a couple and one other woman for alleged child trafficking in Ifitedunu, Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, a media aide to the State Commissioner of Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

The suspects – Ndubuisi Nwankwo and his wife, Temple – were said to have connived with a woman, identified as Ebere, to sell their daughter for N1 million.

The statement did not mention the child’s age, but a video clip accompanying the statement showed that the child appeared to be seven years old.

The couple hail from Nkanu in Enugu State but reside in Ifitedunu in Anambra State.

Ebere, the alleged accomplice, hails from Ukpo, another community in the same Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state.

Arrest

Ms Ikeanyionwu said the three suspects were arrested after the Chairperson of Akwa village in the community, Arinzechukwu Azodo, notified the commissioner of the incident.

The media aide said the suspects were believed to be part of a child trafficking syndicate in the community.

“It will interest you to know that some members of the community alleged that Temple is into the trafficking business with her husband Ndubuisi Nwankwo as an accomplice because they have not seen some of her children for a very long time,” she said.

The clip, which accompanied the statement, showed the suspects in handcuffs while being interrogated by the commissioner.

Apart from the suspects and their daughter, other people involved in the arrest were present.

‘Why I raised an alarm’

Mr Azodo said he raised the alarm after a vigilante commander informed him that a woman (Ebere) was allegedly engaging in the buying and selling of children in the Ifitedunu community.

The chairperson said he immediately went alongside some vigilante operatives and arrested Ebere at a location in the community where she had visited to finalise an agreement for an alleged child purchase.

He said they discovered that the suspects were on the verge of sealing a N1 million deal to sell the child before they were arrested.

Suspects speak

One of the suspects, Ebere, claimed during interrogation that the mother of the child, Mrs Nwankwo, was the one who informed her that she wanted to sell her male child.

She claimed Mrs Nwankwo told her that she had been selling her children and would return home to tell neighbours that the children had died.

The suspect also claimed she consequently promised to link Mrs Nwankwo to a man who needed a male child because the man could not bear a male child and was finding it difficult to adopt one.

She said the man subsequently agreed to pay N1 million to Mrs Nwankwo for the child but that the sale was delayed because Mrs Nwankwo wanted to be paid before bringing the child.

She added that she was surprised to learn after her arrest that the child which Mrs Nwankwo wanted to sell was female and not male.

But Mrs Nwankwo denied the allegations, claiming it was Ebere that requested to buy the child.

She also claimed that Ebere told her that she needed a child and that she had been carrying a fake pregnancy to deceive her husband due to pressure to bear children.

On his part, Mr Nwankwo, the father of the child, claimed he knew nothing about any plan to sell his child.

He claimed that he had buried two of his children who died at different times in the past.

Asked where he buried the children, Mr Nwankwo claimed he buried them in Enugu, a neighbouring state in the South-east.

He claimed that none of his family members accompanied him in burying the deceased children in Enugu.

Mrs Obinabo said Mr Nwankwo would take officials of the ministry to where he buried his children for exhumation.

But an unidentified vigilante operative suggested that Mr Nwankwo’s claim of single-handedly burying his deceased children without the involvement of family members was suspicious.

The vigilante operative said their investigations showed the people who were buried by Mr Nwankwo were his grandchildren.

“It was at this point that the Honourable Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare Anambra, Hon Obinabo, who was visibly sad over the incident, handed them over to the police for investigation and prosecution,” the statement said.

Commissioner reacts

Reacting, Mrs Obinabo reiterated that the Anambra State Government was determined to end trafficking in the state.

The commissioner warned that anyone caught engaging in trafficking will be prosecuted.

She advised residents of the state to always be vigilant and reach out to the ministry whenever they suspect any case of child trafficking around their areas.

Prohibited in Nigeria

Nigeria, in 2015, enacted the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, which outlawed all acts of human trafficking in the country.

The Act prescribes a minimum penalty of between five and ten years imprisonment and a fine of N1 million for the trafficking of children, depending on the purpose of such trafficking.

Several persons have been convicted of child trafficking across the country.

The Kano State High Court, in July 2021, sentenced a man, Paul Owne, to 91 years in prison for kidnapping and trafficking of children in the state for sale in Onitsha, Anambra State.

A Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt, River State, in 2019, sentenced three persons to a combined 12 years imprisonment for trafficking a two-year-old male child and one other child.