A 38-year-old, Chinyere Chukwu, and her 17-year-old daughter, Joy have been apprehended for attempting to sell her two male children in Anambra State.
The woman and her daughter had concluded plans to sell the children to the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon Ify Obinabo, who posed as a buyer for the two children.
The woman had initially pegged the price for the two children at N1 million naira each, but after negotiations, both parties settled for N1.8 million naira for both of them.
It was when the plans were concluded for payments, that the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon Obinabo arrested the culprits.
Speaking when they were questioned at Prof Dora Akunyili Women Development Center Awka, the 38-year-old Chinyere stated that she, alongside her daughter, decided to sell off her two sons due to economic hardship.
Chinyere, who hails from Ozubulu but resident at Okija, further explained that she had eleven kids and couldn’t cater to them, hence her decision.
“I had two children with my late husband who died in 2006 and after that, I had others by myself.
“However, life has been very difficult for me and I considered selling the two children so that I can have something with which to train the rest.
“There was this friend of mine who told me how she sold one of her three children last month and made some money when she couldn’t cater for them again. After discussing with her, that was when I began to hatch the plan to sell these children of mine.
“This is my first attempt. I have not done this kind of thing before,” she pleaded.
Confirming that she was aware that her mother planned to sell her siblings, Joy regretted that even the other siblings were at home without attending school, as there were no funds to send them to school.
Reacting, the Women Affairs Commissioner condemned the act by the culprits, wondering why the woman continued to give birth when she knew she had no means of catering to them.
“Assuming we did not pose as the buyer, who knows who would have bought these children and for what purposes?
“They may even enter into the hands of ritualists of organ harvesters and that would be their end, just because the mother wants to make money,” she lamented.
Obinabo ordered that the remaining children of the suspect be taken into the state government’s custody for proper care while the neighbor who introduced her to the illegal venture will be traced and apprehended too.
Obinabo further directed that after the neighbor has been arrested, contact tracing of the kid would follow to retrieve the child.
Hon. Obinabo, who was visibly sad over the incident, assured of the state government’s resolve to eradicate crimes and warned that anyone found engaging in such an act would be handed over to the police and prosecuted
