The police in Ogun State on Thursday confirmed the arrest of a 36-year-old man, Kingsley Essien, for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali and selling his two-year-old son for N600,000.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, the police spokesperson in the state, said in a statement that the suspect’s wife, Bright Essien, reported the matter at the Agbara Divisional Police Headquarters.
The police said Mrs Essien reported the matter in October last year. She said her husband, Mr Essien, informed her that he had secured a job for her in Bamako, Mali.
She said her husband said he had assisted many people in the past to travel to that country to seek greener pastures.
She added 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 police spokesperson said the matter was reported to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Agbara Division, Abiodun Salau, who had to detail his detectives to go after and arrest the suspect.
He added that on interrogation, the suspect confessed to the commission of the crime. He also confessed that he sold the two-year-old boy to somebody at the rate of N600,00.
The state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered the transfer of the suspect to the anti-human trafficking and child labour unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for investigation.
The CP equally ordered the police to track down and arrest the alleged buyer of the boy to recover the stolen child.
