Mother connives with lover to sell kids for N500, 000

Cajetan Mmuta, BENIN

The Edo State Police Command has arrested a man, Kenneth Ofeke, for allegedly convincing his lover to sell her three children for N500, 000.

Ofeke was arrested along with Stephen Obi, who he allegedly sold the three children to in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The names of the children, two of which are twins, have been identified as Wisdom, Kenneth and Sunny.

The siblings were taken from Edo State and sold to a woman based in Port Harcourt. Before the police caught up with the syndicate, the woman had sold the children to another person in Lagos State.

Police, however, are yet to know if the children are still alive or not.

According to police investigations, Kenneth (26), led his girlfriend to sell the children because they were sick and he couldn’t cater for them.

The suspect, who is an indigene of Ebonyi State, told journalists that he discussed the sale of the children with their mother (his girlfriend).

Kenneth said: “I’m from Ebonyi State. My girlfriend and I are from the same state. I have not paid her bride price. She gave birth to twins. She was not feeling fine after the delivery of the twins. The children also were not well. My parents are not alive, so I tried to look for help. I called an aunt in Port Harcourt.  We took the children to Port Harcourt. The aunt made some inquiries. I gave her the children to take care of and she gave me N500, 000.”

Kenneth, who said that he is a welder, further said: “The aunt and I didn’t discuss price. She just gave me the money. She had Wisdom for a man before I met her. She took in after we departed. She said that the man she had the twins for did not care for her.”

The second suspect, Stephen (48) said he only provided his Goodness and Mercy Orphanage home for the children to be adopted and not to be sold. He said he collected N50, 000 as logistics per child.

Stephen said: “I have not sold any child. I assisted to adopt for parents looking for children. I collect N50, 000 registration fee for logistics. It was police that told me Kenneth was not the father of the children. I told the women to demonstrate she was their mother. She did by breastfeeding the children. They said they wanted a home that could take care of the children. We followed due process, gave affidavit and consent agreement. The people that adopted the children reside in Lagos State.”

The police described Kenneth as a serial child trafficker who had earlier sold a yet to be identified baby for N1m in Port Harcourt.