THE Ogun State Police Command has arrested a man identified as Kingsley Essien for selling his wife and son for N2 million.
Spokesperson of the Command Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement on Thursday, said the suspect was arrested following a report lodged at Agbara divisional headquarters by his wife, Bright Essien.
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According to the statement, the suspect told his wife in October 2021 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”.
“She explained further that being 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 trafficker cartel headed by a woman at the rate of One million four hundred thousand naira,” the statement added.
According to the police, while in Mali, the suspect’s wife was forced into prostitution but she later found her way to the Nigerian embassy in Bamako where she was assisted back to Nigeria.
The police spokesman explained that on getting to the country from Mali, Bright discovered that her son, who was in the care of the suspect, was nowhere to be found.
After lodging the report, the Agbara Divisional Police Officer Abiodun Salau dispatched his detectives to go after the suspect, and he was eventually arrested.
Upon interrogation, according to the statement, the suspect admitted that he sold the boy to somebody for N600,000.
The statement disclosed that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police 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 (SCID) for discreet investigation.
The commissioner of police also ordered that the person who bought the suspect’s son must be traced and arrested in order to recover the child.
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