A couple Mr and Mrs Benson Have been arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit in Afam, in the Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, for selling their day-old child for N250,000.
Richard and Chidinma Benson, however, disclosed they sold their baby to enable them to leave their village in the Isiala Ngwa North LGA of Abia State to seek better life in a town.
Chidinma had reportedly been delivered of a baby boy at Graceland Maternity Home in Afam on October 7, 2018, and she allegedly sold the baby to one Rose Onyia.
It was gathered that the baby was later resold to another child trafficker, identified as Eucharia Jaja, for N550,000 after which the infant was sold to an unnamed person in Lagos.
The couple told PUNCH Metro that poverty led them to sell the baby, who they said was their fourth child.
Chidinma said, “We sold our baby to one woman (Rose Onyia). I have four children and one is late. The baby was one day old when we sold him for N250,000. I did it with my husband’s approval.
“We wanted to leave the village because we were living in poverty. My husband was a wheelbarrow pusher and we believed that if we sell the baby, we would have enough money to come to a town in Umuahia or Port Harcourt.”
Her husband, Benson Richard, confirmed that they were almost dying of poverty when they decided to sell the baby so that they could leave the village.
“My wife had a big sore in one of her legs and we needed money to treat the wound. At a point, my wife could not walk; that was when we decided to sell the baby boy after he was delivered,” Benson said.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGP Monitoring Unit, Benneth Igwe, said the couple and 13 other suspected child traffickers were arrested in Oyigbo and Ikwerre LGAs based on reliable intelligence.
Igwe alleged that the child trafficking cartel had sold hundreds of children within and outside the country, adding that members of the cartel specialised in luring pregnant women to illegal maternity homes for the delivery and eventual sale of their babies.
Apart from the Bensons, Daniel and Jaja, he identified other suspected traffickers as Ikechi Nwanyanwu, Oluchi Ude, Kelechi Stephen, Destiny Sunday, Mary James, Chioma Prince, Ede Loveth, Nmesoma John and Victory Ihunna, who allegedly sold another child for N750,000 before she was arrested.
Chidinma had reportedly been delivered of a baby boy at Graceland Maternity Home in Afam on October 7, 2018, and she allegedly sold the baby to one Rose Onyia.
It was gathered that the baby was later resold to another child trafficker, identified as Eucharia Jaja, for N550,000 after which the infant was sold to an unnamed person in Lagos.
The couple told PUNCH Metro that poverty led them to sell the baby, who they said was their fourth child.
Chidinma said, “We sold our baby to one woman (Rose Onyia). I have four children and one is late. The baby was one day old when we sold him for N250,000. I did it with my husband’s approval.
“We wanted to leave the village because we were living in poverty. My husband was a wheelbarrow pusher and we believed that if we sell the baby, we would have enough money to come to a town in Umuahia or Port Harcourt.”
Her husband, Benson Richard, confirmed that they were almost dying of poverty when they decided to sell the baby so that they could leave the village.
“My wife had a big sore in one of her legs and we needed money to treat the wound. At a point, my wife could not walk; that was when we decided to sell the baby boy after he was delivered,” Benson said.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGP Monitoring Unit, Benneth Igwe, said the couple and 13 other suspected child traffickers were arrested in Oyigbo and Ikwerre LGAs based on reliable intelligence.
Igwe alleged that the child trafficking cartel had sold hundreds of children within and outside the country, adding that members of the cartel specialised in luring pregnant women to illegal maternity homes for the delivery and eventual sale of their babies.
Apart from the Bensons, Daniel and Jaja, he identified other suspected traffickers as Ikechi Nwanyanwu, Oluchi Ude, Kelechi Stephen, Destiny Sunday, Mary James, Chioma Prince, Ede Loveth, Nmesoma John and Victory Ihunna, who allegedly sold another child for N750,000 before she was arrested.
*Poverty is almost killing them but they will not stop gbenshing and making babies?Nonsense!!!..even the money they sold the baby for cannot pay rent where they wanted to relocate to......
Arrant Bull crap
ReplyDeleteThe government needs to make the adoption process seemless so that women who cannot afford to take care of their babies can give them out for adoption.
ReplyDeleteThe bitter truth is that these illegal adoptions will not end anytime soon. The demand for children (especially new borns) is high but most orphanages are filled with toddlers and infants.
Most Nigerians are only willing to adopt children that they can raise from birth.
That said, it's not right to trade your child for financial gain. Poverty is not an escuse.
Oh lord what a life and here I am looking for one with more than a million naira, life is really unfair, God show us mercy.
ReplyDeleteThis is wickedness and hardness of heart. They dont fear God.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised
ReplyDeleteNa dia way be dat, Na so dem people be
Dis matta weak me o! See Wetin PMB don cause. Lord have mercy.
ReplyDeleteBefore pmb, this has been going on. I know of a woman who bought a child in 1997.
DeleteThey will surely gbensh Na, that's the only free thing they can afford
ReplyDeleteFoooooolishness! God forbid.
ReplyDeleteHow is it different from surrogacy? Abeg na their decision... at least the baby wont die of hunger or one disease
DeleteIt's 100% different from surrogacy because they know nothing about who they are selling their child to. Surrogacy is a process where the prospective parents are interviewed and a background check is performed on them, the agency visits their home to see where the child will be living, at least this is how it is in a developed nation. However, this is secretive and dark, see how many times the child was resold. The baby is no longer a baby it is now a unit of trade.
DeleteI won't judge them though because I live in a country where there are social programs in place to lessen the blow of poverty and free health care for all. True poverty is a vile inhumane experience that nobody should have to ever experience. It is even worse to me to see married women still battling in poverty, to me marriage is supposed to improve your life an better you.
I think you should do a post about how to go about this adoption, you will be surprised to know that most people think they are doing it the right way.
ReplyDeleteWicked hearts
ReplyDeleteTomorrow they will continue their gbensh game
Buhari why
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong in giving out a child for adoption, its better than killing the child. They are obviously hungry and cannot cater for another child. The government really needs to look into so many things.Adoption here in Nigeria na war!
ReplyDeleteThis one na reigning business na. All those ministries that pray for women to get pregnant and inject them with hormones to fake pregnancy, how do they get their babies?
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, the couples deliberately get pregnant for a rich couple sef
Midwives, maternity homes, prophetesses, nurses, ritualists work together a lot .
Dont ever give birth in a maternity home, especially if the owner calls herself "woman of God". They swap and sell babies a lot.
Seriously, I see that they should let couples who sell their babies for money be.
ReplyDeleteSo far the both of them agreed and did it together and they didn't sell to ritualists I see no problem there.
It is their life and they didn't want to continue living in poverty and they resort to such means instead of going into rituals or anything bloody.
Though, that amount is too small and won't give them any good life.
That's my own point of view in all of such issue.
Just look at this wickedness
ReplyDeleteWho are the people buying this babies self????
Buying babies...Meanwhile, someone will come online stating how they have finally given birth after 10/15/20 years of trying!
ReplyDeleteIt's not only these "celeb" women that are posting things they got illegitimately!
Poverty can push you to the wall is actually the worse disease
ReplyDelete