Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), FCT command has arrested a man, 42, while trying to sell his eight-year-old son for N20 million in Abuja.
The FCT commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Olusola Odumosu, who paraded the suspect, Mr. China Telpesa Solomon Tali, said he was tracked and arrested by a crack team of the command’s intelligence unit on January 10, 2024.
Odumosu said the suspect, father of six children, engaged the service of one Mr. Pius Aondoakaa, who was also arrested, to find a buyer for the victim who happens to be his fourth child.
He said the “commands’ ardent and astute intelligence personnel in their proactive engagements in January 2024, intercepted the suspect who conspired with another man to trade an eight-year-old boy who he claimed to be his child for the sum of N20 million in the FCT.
Odumosu further revealed that, “Following a tip-off, the suspects were immediately placed under surveillance. One of the suspects Pius Aondoakaa, the agent, in a quest for a higher bid rejected the sum of N12 million offered him and was looking for N20 million for a ‘he-goat’ meaning a boy child.
“He also offered a ‘she-goat’ (that is a girl child) for N15 million.
Pius claimed to have a boy child for sale and that the father of the boy wanted to use the proceeds of the sale to take care of his other children,” he said.
Odumosu disclosed that, “In view of this, the acclaimed father of the boy, Mr. China Telpesa Solomon Tali, was lured to Abuja on the January 10, 2024 by the FCT Intelligence Personnel who posed as a buyer and agreed on the terms to buy and pay the sum of N20 million.”
On his part, Tali said hardship in the country forced him to take the decision.
He said the plan was to sell his son to get money to feed his other children.
Both suspects, who hail from Logo local government area of Benue State were handed over to the operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), for further investigation and prosecution.
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