The Anambra State Government, through the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, has detained a 38-year-old woman named Chinyere Chukwu for attempting to sell her two sons.
Chukwu, a resident of Okija in the Ihiala Local Government Area of the state, allegedly collaborated with her 17-year-old daughter, Joy, to facilitate the sale of her two sons, citing economic hardships in the country as the motivation.
During the interrogation, Chukwu, who has a total of 11 children, revealed that she decided to sell two of them when she found it challenging to provide for their needs. The state Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo, along with security operatives, arrested the suspects after posing as buyers for the children when the ministry received information about the transaction.
Chukwu disclosed, “I have 11 kids and when I could not cater to them, I decided to sell two of them. Since they are boys, the prices were kept at N1 million each, but after serious bargaining by the commissioner, who posed as the buyer, we decided to sell them at N1.8 million, instead of the initial N2 million.”
She further explained that she became interested in the business after her neighbor successfully sold one of her children. This was Chukwu’s first attempt at such a venture. She had two children with her husband, and the remaining nine were born after her husband’s demise. She admitted to struggling to provide adequate care and support for all her children.
The 17-year-old daughter, the eldest of the 11 children, added that the plan was to use the proceeds from the sale to fund her tertiary education.
Responding to the situation, Commissioner Obinabo ordered that the remaining children of the suspect be taken into the state government’s custody for proper care. She also vowed to apprehend the woman’s neighbor who had sold off her own child. Once arrested, the commissioner directed contact tracing to retrieve the child and reiterated the state government’s commitment to eradicating such crimes. Obinabo warned that anyone found engaging in such acts would be handed over to the police and prosecuted.