Lady jailed after selling 2-year-old son for N400,000 in Rivers State

A young mother together with her accomplice has been sentenced to prison over conspiracy against her child and child trafficking in Rivers State.

The said women, Chinaza Smart, and Amarachi Ahukanna have been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment each by a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to the court ruling, Chinaza, 21 and Ahukanna, 28 were found guilty of conspiring to sell off the former’s 2-year-old son, identified as Daniel for the whopping sum of N400,000 in other to raise money for their trip to Dubai.

The innocent child was sold off to a woman also identified as Precious from Anambra State.

The Chief Magistrate, Felicitas Amanze, in her judgment, said the two accused persons committed a heinous crime against an innocent child whose whereabouts were still unknown.

According to her, the second defendant (Ahukanna), who introduced the first defendant (Chinaza) to the child trafficking business convinced her to sell her son to raise money to travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she could earn N400,000 monthly.

The duo was sentenced to five years on count one of conspiracy and seven years on count two of child trafficking, which would run consecutively.

Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, a legal officer with the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Mrs. Esther Acho-Korienta, applauded the judgment and expressed the hope that it would serve as a lesson to other child traffickers out there.

She said, “The two young ladies conspired to sell the child of the first defendant in the name of traveling to Dubai for business.

“The second defendant approached the first defendant that she earned N400,000 monthly in Dubai, that why would she continue suffering under her boyfriend instead of going to Dubai to do the kind of business she was doing.

“They sold the two-year-old child to a woman at Ihiala, Anambra State, and till date, the child has not been found.

“The second defendant also sold one of her own children in order to also travel to Dubai.”