An Akwa Ibom based pastor, and his wife have been arrested by police operatives in the state for allegedly kidnapping a new born baby with plans to sell it off to a syndicate at the sum of N300, 000.
The pastor identified only as John allegedly had a link with a child trafficking syndicate operating at Nung Ukot Itam, Itu Local Government Area of the state.
According to The Sun, Commissioner of Police (CP), Gabriel Achong, who was represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Mike Okoli disclosed that the General Overseer of a Pentecostal church and his wife Deborah adopted babies from a member of their syndicate, known as Esther who was the baby’s mother.
In a confessional statement, the pastor said, “We have the mission to train children and suddenly we changed our mind, when my wife and I ventured into selling of a new baby for N200,000.00 or N300,000.00 since we have a syndicate who could sell it for us.’’
Similarly, another suspect known as Sabbath has been arrested by the police after she gave birth to twins and willingly sold one of them for N90,000.
She said, ‘’It was poverty that led me into this mess. It is true that I sold one of my twins for N90,000.00 to Mr Akpanam and Mr Samuel to be able to train the other baby. My husband’s family should forgive me for what I have done, it was poverty that led me into this.’’
The pastor and some other suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded, according to the police.
