A High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced three women to death for kidnapping three children in Akwa Ibom and selling them off in Aba, Abia State.
The court presided by Justice Gabriel Ette, found the accused guilty of conspiracy and kidnapping, punishable by death under Section 1 of the Akwa Ibom State Internal Security and Enforcement Law, 2009 and sentenced the accused women to death by hanging.
According to Dailytrust report, Truthlive news learnt that the first convicts, Enobong Nsikak Sunday, kidnapped a two-year-old girl she met at a vigil in Ifa Atai, Uyo, who looked poor and hungry.
The 38-year-old mother of two from Atiamkpat in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area said she had trailed the mother and child to their house in Ifa Atai and deceived her that she wants to take the child to a hospital for treatment.
However, after her first failed attempt, she went back to the woman’s house in Ifa Atai, where she successfully kidnapped the poor child.
It was also learnt that the second convict, Gertrude Thompson Akpan said she made a profit of N500,000 per child she kidnaps, and N200,000 for those brought to her for sale.
The 48-year-old native of Ikot Eyo in the same Nsit Ubium LGA, stated that the last two children she kidnapped on December 16, 2018, at Abak Road, Uyo, were two years and 10 months old respectively.
Similarly, Mary Okon James, (49) and a native of Obotim in Nsit Ibom LGA, confessed that she bought one of the children (victim’s) at the sum of N200,000 and sold the child at the sum of N500,000 in neighbouring Aba, in Abia State.
In his judgement, Justice Ette said the confessional statements of the accused persons established that they constituted a sophisticated syndicate for their infamous trade.
He held: “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 organised 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.