Three women get death sentence for child trading

A State High Court sitting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital has sentenced three women to death for kidnaping and child trading.

The three women were charged to court for kidnapping three children in Uyo and selling them off in Aba, Abia State at N1.1m.

After the trials, they were condemned by Justice Gabriel Ette who found them guilty of conspiracy and kidnapping, punishable by death under Section 1 of the Akwa Ibom State Internal Security and Enforcement Law, 2009.

The convicted ladies are Enobong Nsikak Sunday, a 38-year-old mother of two from Atiamkpat in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area, who was involved in the kidnap of a two-year old girl she met at a vigil in Ifa Atai, Uyo Local Government Area.

The convict, reportedly, confessed that she trailed the mother and child to their house in Ifa Atai and deceived the mother that she wants to take the child to a hospital for treatment.

On their way, she said she stopped and gave the mother of the child N5000 to buy foodstuffs at the nearby Transformer Junction Market on Abak Road, Uyo, but she refused.

Like an eagle set on a target, the convicted kidnapper after her first failed attempt, went back to the woman’s house in Ifa Atai, where she successfully kidnapped the child and used her for her trade.

The second convict, a 48-year-old native of Ikot Eyo in Nsit Ubium, Getrude Thompson Akpan, said she made a profit of N500,000 per child she kidnapped, and N200,000 for those brought to her for sale.

The sale which landed her in prison was that of two children, aged two years and 10 months, that she kidnapped on December 16, 2018 at Abak Road, Uyo, after deceiving their mother that the wife of the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Martha Udom Emmanuel was empowering the poor and that she will take her to the First Lady for help.

Also convicted was Mary Okon James, a 49-year-old native of Obotim in Nsit Ibom, who bought one of the children at N200,000 and sold at N500,000 in Aba.

In his judgment, Justice Gabriel Ette said the confessional statements of the accused persons linked each other and firmly established the fact that they constitute a sophisticated syndicate for their barbaric trade.

“For a woman to have gone to that extent, it means she has sealed her conscience with a hot iron and thereby become a threat to civilized society as every child is her potential victim. You have, by your conduct, disqualified yourself from continuing to walk free in organzied society as every child is your potential victim.”

Mary Okon Bassey, a native of Obotim village in Nsit Ibom Local Government, it is your claim that you joined the trade of kidnapping and selling other people’s children in January, 2017. You also claimed to have sold two female children in Aba before nemesis caught up with you. This, you did with no human empathy and not minding what fate awaits your innocent victims and what arrow you have caused to pierce the hearts of their hapless parents. You did this so you may live big and comfortable.

“How did you feel when you took two children from the same mother in your journey to selling them off for filthy lucre? You had caused your innocent victims sleepless nights, though providence smiled on her for her children to be recovered. You are a pest to society and not fit to walk the earth like a free woman again ever. You, in your life time chose to walk the pathway of crime and today, you will reap your reward. Those who murder sleep, do not deserve to dream. I find you guilty and the sentence of this Court on you is that you be hanged on your neck until you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on your soul,” Justice Ette held.