Chinaza, 21, and Ahukanna, 28, were found guilty of conspiring to sell the former’s two-year-old son, Daniel, for the sum of N400,000 to a woman identified as Precious from Anambra State.
According
to report, a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has
sentenced two women, Chinaza Smart, and Amarachi Ahukanna, to 12 years’
imprisonment each for conspiracy and child trafficking.
The Chief
Magistrate, Felicitas Amanze, in her judgement, said the two accused persons
committed a heinous crime against an innocent child whose whereabouts was still
unknown.
She said
the second defendant (Ahukanna), who introduced the first defendant (Chinaza)
to the child trafficking business lied to the court that she did not convince
her to sell her son in order to raise money to travel to Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, where she could earn N400,000 monthly.
The chief
magistrate ruled that Ahukanna was a chronic and unrepentant child trafficker
and sentenced the duo 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, hailed the
judgement and expressed the hope that it would serve as a deterrent to other
child traffickers.
She said,
“The two young ladies conspired to sell the child of the first defendant in the
name of travelling 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.”
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