Ogun state police has arrested a 36-year-old man, Kingsley Essien, for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali and selling his two-year-old son for N600,000.
According to Abimbola Oyeyemi, the police spokesperson in the state, in a statement on Thursday, the suspect’s wife, Bright Essien, reported the matter at the Agbara Divisional Police Headquarters.
Oyeyemi said the matter was reported in October 2021 to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Agbara Division, Abiodun Salau, who had to detail his detectives to go after and arrest the suspect.
He revealed that during the course of interrogation the suspect confessed to the commission of the crime.
He added that suspect also confessed to sold the two-year-old boy to somebody at the rate of N600,00.
While revealing her ordeal, Mrs Essien told police that her husband said he secured a job for her in Bamako, Mali.
She added that her husband said he had assisted many people in the past to travel to that country to seek greener pastures.
She said that being her husband, she did not suspect any foul play until she got to Mali. In Mali, she said she discovered that her husband had sold her to a human trafficking cartel headed by a woman for N1.4 million.
“While in Mali, she was forced into prostitution, but later found her way to the Nigerian Embassy in Bamako where she was assisted back to Nigeria,” the police said.
“On getting to Nigeria, she discovered that her two-year-old son in care of her husband was nowhere to be found.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered the transfer of the suspect to the anti-human trafficking and child labor unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for investigation.
The CP also ordered the police to track down and arrest the alleged buyer of the boy to recover the stolen child.
