Could poverty and desperation make a parent sell his or her child? And in the event that a parent trades a child for money, could the action be referred to as evil, wickedness, lack of care, or…?
After Abraham Olaniyan, at the time a 26-year-old resident of the Alabgado area of Lagos State sold his day-old baby for N350,000 in May 2012, he blamed it on poverty. Olaniyan further explained that when his wife, Nkechi Olaniyan was pregnant with their fifth child, his family was going through great financial difficulties leading to his inability to cater to their financial needs.
Then in a bizarre twist to parents selling their children in the 21st century, a 30-year-old man was recently arrested for selling his 9-month-old son to three different buyers!
Daniel Chigozie was apprehended by operatives of the Amotekun Corps in Ogun State. The Corps Commandant, David Akinremi, said the security agency got a classified report that the father had serially merchandised his 9-month-old infant to three different buyers at various locations —Sango, Meiran, and Apapa area of Lagos.
The suspect was reportedly paid N150,000, N400,000, and N700,000 respectively by unknown buyers between August 2022 and February 2023.
Akinremi also disclosed that an investigation conducted by the corps revealed that the man, who is suspected to be working with a criminal syndicate, had devised a means through which the son was retrieved from the buyers after each sale until he sold him to the last buyer, identified as Dr. Nosa, in Apapa.
The suspect, who resides at Abela, Sango-Ota, in Ado-Odo Local Government Area of the state, confessed to the crime.
The National Agency is profiling Chigozie for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for a follow-up investigation to recover the child and for prosecution.
In May 2022 the police in Ogun State confirmed the arrest of a 36-year-old man, Kingsley Essien, for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali and selling his two-year-old son for N600,000.
The Ogun State police spokesperson in a statement said that the suspect’s wife, Bright Essien, reported the matter at the Agbara Divisional Police Headquarters
The police said Mrs. Essien reported the matter in October last year. She said her husband, Mr. Essien, informed her that he had secured a job for her in Bamako, Mali.
She said her husband said he had assisted many people in the past to travel to that country to seek greener pastures.
She added that being her husband; she did not suspect any foul play until she got to Mali. In Mali, she said she discovered that her husband had sold her to a human trafficking cartel headed by a woman for N1.4 million.
