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| (L-R) Emem 'n' d suspected ritualists |
Emem Godwin Etukudo, a woman, who has found joy in carrying pregnancies for nine months and thereafter selling the babies for a cheap amount, is now cooling her feet in police cell, writes UDEM UTIP.While millions of women and families are praying, asking God and gods; depending on their faith, for even one child to call their own to no avail, the reverse is the case with many others who are looking for ways of getting rid of theirs before or even after there are born.
This was clearly exemplified by a young woman, Emem Godwin Etukudo, who was paraded by the Akwa Ibom State Police Command, for allegedly selling her two-day-old baby.
Emem’s stock in trade has been traced to giving birth to and selling the babies to her prospective buyers as she enjoys going through rigorous process of nine months pregnancy and the birth pangs, just to give the newborn out for between N50, 000 and N100, 000 to prospective buyers until she was apprehended by the police in the process last weekend.
Emem, alongside her baby buyers,
suspected to be traffickers, were arrested in her village, Okon Eket in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State while still in the process of giving away her second child according to her.
The dark complexioned lady, who is already cooling her feet in the police cell, told Saturday Tribune that it was poverty that drove her into the illicit trade of giving birth and selling her babies.
According to her, after having her children, she had no money to cater for them, hence the option of selling them out, believing that those who have the money to buy them will be able to take care of them while she uses the proceeds for her up keep.
“I have nobody to help me and I am jobless, I don’t always want the children to suffer in my hands and the only option I believe is to give them to those who are looking for children and can take care of them,” she said.
Emem, who could not tell who was the father of any of her children, disclosed that she had sold one of her children in 2009 for N50, 000 and that the one she was caught in the process of selling was her second child, which she gave away for N100, 000.
The Okon Eket born Emen, who was crying for leniency, claiming that the same gang she was arrested with bought her baby in 2009.
She said she was introduced to the syndicates, who bought her baby, by a friend who appreciated her problem and decided to help her.
“I don’t enjoy selling my children, but when I don’t have the money to buy food for them and I can’t call anybody my husband, I did not know what to do. When the people approached me, I just sold the baby. I believe they will be better off with the buyers. My only prayer is that they will not be used for rituals,” Emem lamented.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Onyeka Orji, Emem confessed to selling her child two years ago for the sum of N50, 000 and recently sold another for N100, 000.
Emem, who is said to have admitted to the crime, according to the police source, confessed that she sold the child at the cost of N100, 000 to a gang of traffickers who then resold the baby for N470, 000.
The Police spokesman told Saturday Tribune that John Michael Stephen, Nancy Nwamuo Obuji and Peace Joseph Akpan who are members of the trafficking gang, were arrested on their way to negotiate for the purchase of another child in the area, after they had successfully sold the first one to one Mrs. Okuchi Moses, the proprietor of St. Margaret Memorial Clinic in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
It was gathered that Mrs. Okuchi Moses had also been apprehended for illegally trading in children at exorbitant prices to couples who are in need of children.
Items recovered from the syndicate, according to the police included one Volkswagen Jeta with registration number XA 926 RGM, baby clothing, pampers, feeding bottles and the sum of N100, 000 suspected to have been the money paid to Emem Etukudoh, for her baby.
The baby as of press time was yet to be recovered from the last buyer, Mrs.Okuchi Moses.
Source..... Nigerian Tribune
