The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo at the weekend ended a protracted legal battle in the case of kidnapping and selling of children by a syndicate, and sentenced the ring leaders, three women to death for stealing three children and selling them to clients in Aba, Abia State for N1.1m.
They were condemned to die by hanging by the presiding judge, 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.
One of the condemned kidnappers, Enobong Nsikak Sunday, a 38 year-old mother of two from Atiamkpat in Nsit Ubium local government area, said she kidnapped a two-year old girl she met at a vigil in Ifa Atai community in Uyo “looking poor and hungry,” and capitalised on her condition to lure her.
“I trailed the mother and child to their house in Ifa Atai, and deceived her that I wanted to take the child to hospital for treatment. On the way, I stopped and gave the mother N5,000 to buy foodstuff at the nearby market, but she refused.”
After the first failed attempt, she said she went back to the woman’s house where she successfully seized the poor child.
The second convict, Gertrude Thompson Akpan, a 48-year-old native of Ikot Eyo, also in the same Nsit Ubium LGA, said she made a profit of N500,000 per child she kidnapped, and N200,000 for those brought to her for sale.
The last business which landed her in prison and subsequent death sentence, LEADERSHIP gathered, was the case of two children aged two years and 10 months 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 would take her to the first lady for help.
The third convict, Mary Okon James, 49, a native of Obotim village in Nsit Ibom LGA, will also die by hanging for buying one of the kidnapped children at N200,000 and reselling the child at N500,000 in Aba, Abia State, netting a profit of N300,000.
Justice Ette pointed out that the confessional statements of the accused persons link each other and firmly established the fact that they constitute a sophisticated syndicate for their infamous trade.
The court held that 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.
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