A 22-year-old woman, Faith Sunday, has been arrested in Lagos on charges of child trafficking after confessing to selling her one-year-old son for N1.5 million to escape the grip of hunger.
Faith was apprehended alongside seven other members of a child-trafficking syndicate by detectives from the Zone 2 Police Command headquarters in Onikan, Lagos, led by Ngozi Braide.
In her confession to the police, Faith stated, “I sold my son in September 2024 to a buyer through Mrs Ibezim Chioma and Mr Sunday Okputu. The buyer, who lives in the Alissa area of Ikeja, paid me N1.5 million. I was driven to sell my child due to hunger. My intention was to invest the money in a business.”
DCP Ajao S. Adewale, who oversees the Zonal Anti-Crime Unit in Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos, paraded the suspects over the weekend, explaining that the arrests were prompted by intelligence received by the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Adegoke Fayoad.
Adewale revealed that the investigation into the activities of the notorious child-trafficking syndicate uncovered their focus on buying and selling newborns, toddlers, and children of varying ages. He identified Sunday Okputu as the supplier of the children, with Ibezim Chioma serving as the intermediary.
The duo actively sought prospective buyers for their illicit and lucrative business. Additionally, one Mrs Chinasa Echellibe was identified as the caregiver who looked after the children while awaiting buyers.
During the operation, led by Ngozi Braide, five children were rescued from the syndicate. Among them was one-year-old Marvelous Obi, who was sold to Ibezim Chioma when he was barely one week old. Chioma then resold him to Mrs Ken Obi and Mrs Appulus Marina Oluchi, who currently resides in Italy but had left him in the care of Chinasa Echellibe, the syndicate’s caregiver.
Three-year-old Promise Ifekwuna had been sold to Mrs Ifekwuna Ngozi for N500,000 by the ring leader, Sunday Okputu, in 2021. Another child, Somtochukwu, was found in the care of Nwakuba Helen Chinyere, who claimed to be merely a nanny employed by her younger sister, Caroline Enwereji, residing in California, USA.
