Three women have been sentenced to death by hanging for kidnapping three children in Uyo and selling them off in Aba, Abia State, for N1.1 million by the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, the State capital.
The convicts, Enobong Sunday, 38; Getrude Akpan, 48; and Mary James, 49, were sentenced to death by Justice Gabriel Ette after they were found guilty of conspiracy and kidnapping, offences punishable by death under Section 1 of the Akwa Ibom State Internal Security and Enforcement Law, 2009.
Sunday, a mother of two, was found guilty of kidnapping a girl whom she met at a vigil in Ifa Atai, Uyo, “looking poor and hungry.”
She said she trailed the child and her mother to their house in Ifa Atai and lied to the woman that she wanted to take the girl to a hospital for treatment.
On the way, she said she gave the mother N5,000 to buy foodstuffs at the nearby Transformer Junction Market on Abak Road, Uyo, but she refused.
The convicted kidnapper then returned after the first failed attempt to the woman’s house, where she successfully kidnapped the victim.
The second convict, Akpan, told the court that she made a profit of N500,000 per child she kidnapped and N200,000 for those brought to her for sale.
She was found guilty of kidnapping two children, aged two years and 10 months, whom she kidnappped on December 16, 2018, on Abak Road, Uyo, after deceiving their mother that the wife of the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr Martha Emmanuel, was empowering the poor and she would take her to the First Lady for help.
The last convict, James, bought one of the children at N200,000 and sold the child at N500,000 in Aba.
Delivering judgment on Friday, the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Ette, said the confessional statements of the accused persons linked them to the crime.
He said, “Mary Okon Bassey, a native of Obotim village in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area, it is your claim that you joined the trade of kidnapping and selling other people’s children in January 2017. You also claimed to have sold two female children in Aba before nemesis caught up with you.
“How did you feel when you took two children from the same mother in your journey to selling them off for filthy lucre? You had caused your innocent victims sleepless nights, though providence smiled on her for her children to be recovered. You are a pest to society and not fit to walk the earth like a free woman again ever. You, in your lifetime, chose to walk the pathway of crime and today, you will reap your reward. Those who murder sleep, do not deserve to dream. I find you guilty and the sentence of this court on you is that you be hanged on your neck until you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.”
