A 36-year-old man, Kingsley Essien, has been arrested by operatives of the Ogun State Police Command for trafficking his wife to Mali for prostitution and subsequently selling her two-year-old son for N600,000.
The spokesman of the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, revealed this development in a statement on Thursday.
Oyeyemi said Essien was arrested following a report lodged at Agbara Divisional Police Headquarters by his wife, Bright Essien, who reported that sometime in October 2021, her husband informed her that he had secured a job for her in Bamako, Mali, and that he has assisted many people to that country for greener pastures before.
Bright explained further that been her husband, she didn’t suspect any foul play until she got to Mali only to discover that she has been sold to a human trafficking cartel headed by a woman at the rate of N1.4 million.
She said 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.
On getting to Nigeria, she discovered that her two-year-old son in care of her husband is no where to be found.
Upon the report, the Divisional Police Officer, Agbara Division, SP Abiodun Salau, detailed his detectives to go after the suspect.
Essien was eventually arrested.
On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the commission of the crime.
He confessed further that he sold the two-year-old son to somebody for N600,000.
The Command’s Commissioner, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspect to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for discreet investigation.
Bankole equally ordered that the buyer of the son must be traced and arrested in order to recover the stolen child.
