The Akwa Ibom Police Command at Ikot Akpanabia, near Uyo, the state capital, has arrested and detained a middle aged man, Gabriel Okon Ekpiri, from Ekit Itam Akpanobong community in Itu Local Government Area, for allegedly trading off his nine-year-old son for N400,000.
LEADERSHIP gathered in his confessional statement availed to the prosecutor, the suspect admitted to the crime, blaming “the excruciating economic hardship and the devil for pushing me into selling my son in order to take care of my economic challenges.”
The suspects, according to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Odiko MacDon, who spoke to LEADERSHIP yesterday, will soon be arraigned in Court, as the whereabouts of the child sold to an unidentified buyer in the state, could not be ascertained, even as he assured that “the perpetrators would be apprehended and made to face the law.”
The Commissioner of Police (CP) Olatoye Durosinmi said he has been very worried over the sad incident, adding that some tactical operatives have been deployed with a view to rescuing the boy and the suspects arrested.
He said: “The CP has condemned the action of one Gabriel Okon Ekpiri of Ekit Itam Akpan Obong in Itu Local Government Area, who sold his nine-year-old son for N400,000.
“The CP noted that the act was barbaric and totally unacceptable. The suspect who was arrested by the quick Intervention Squad of the Command has confessed to the crime while blaming the devil and economic hardship for his action.”
