Why I sold my nine-year-old son – Suspect

The police in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, have arrested a man for allegedly selling his nine-year-old son for N400,000.

The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko Macdon, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

He identified the suspect as Gabriel Ekpiri of Ekit Itam Akpan Obong in the Itu Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Macdon, a superintendent of police, said the suspect has confessed to the crime and blamed it on the “devil” and “economic hardship.”

He said the State Police Commissioner, Olatoye Durosinmi, has condemned the action describing it as “barbaric and unacceptable.”

The incident occurred three weeks after a High Court in the state sentenced three women to death for child trafficking.

The convicts, Enobong Sunday, Gertrude Thompson and Mary James, abducted three children and sold them off in Aba, Abia State.

One of the convicts, Mrs Thompson, from Ikot Eyo in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area, confessed to making N500,000 per child and N200,000 for those who brought the child for her.

Punch newspaper in November 2021 reported how operatives of the Anti-Human Trafficking unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in the state arrested a couple for allegedly selling their two daughters for N700,000.

The suspects, Elish Effiong and his wife, confessed to the crime and blamed their action on “extreme hardship.”

PREMIUM TIMES in March 2020 reported how a woman in the state identified as Nse James confessed to selling her three-day-old baby for N300,000.

The suspect, according to the report, also confessed to selling several children in the past. She had led police officers to Nkanu-Isiala Ngwa local government area, where a one-year-old child was rescued, and another suspect was arrested.