Chinaza Smart and Amarachi Ahukanna were sentenced to 12 years in jail each by a Magistrate’s Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for conspiracy and child trafficking.
Chinaza, 21, and Ahukanna, 28, were found guilty of conspiring to sell the former’s two-year-old son, Daniel, to a woman named Precious from Anambra State for the sum of N400,000.
In her ruling, Chief Magistrate Felicitas Amanze stated that the two defendants perpetrated a horrific act against an innocent child whose whereabouts were unknown.
She claimed that the second defendant (Ahukanna), who introduced the first defendant (Chinaza) to the child trafficking business, lied to the court by claiming that she did not persuade her to sell her son to raise money to travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she could earn N400,000 per month.
The chief magistrate found Ahukanna to be a persistent and unrepentant child trafficker and sentenced the pair to five years in prison on point one of conspiracy and seven years in prison on count two of child trafficking, both to serve concurrently.
Mrs Esther Acho-Korienta, a legal officer of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), spoke to reporters outside the courtroom and praised the decision, hoping that it will act as a deterrence to other child traffickers.
According to her, “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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