Justice Okon Okon of the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has handed down a 10-year jail term on a 47-year-old retired matron, Ms. Gertrude Akpan, for child trafficking.
The convict was said to have bought a six-year-old boy in Uyo for N50, 000 and sold him to one Kate Ogbonna in Owerri, Imo State for N200, 000.
During the trial, the prosecution told the court that one Ubong Ekwere had on May 12, 2018 abducted the six-year-old boy in the custody of his grandmother and sold him to the convict for N50,000.
Akpan, in turn, sold the child to Ogbonna in Owerri for N200, 000.
In his judgement, the judge declared: “Apart from the confession of the convict, the evidence of the prosecution witness that she assisted the police in the recovery of the child victim from the buyer in Owerri, remained unchallenged and therefore accepted.”
He said Akpan was “guilty of unlawful removal and transfer of the child from Akwa Ibom State to Owerri, Imo State.”
“It is sadistic that Gertrude (Akpan), a mother of children, indulged in selling the children of others, thereby depriving the innocent children of the natural love, care and upbringing of their parents. Such an evil trade must be deprecated, forestalled and checkmated by every right thinking member of society,” he added.
He therefore found her guilty and pronounced the sentence without an option of fine.
The convict, who has three children, is a native of Ikot Eyo in Nsit Ubium local government area of the state.
She claimed to have been a retired matron of Immanuel Hospital, Eket, where she worked in 2015.
She confessed that she had been in the business of trafficking in children since 2008.
