THE Ogun State Police Force has arrested a 36-year-old man identified as Mr Kingsley Essien for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali for prostitution and selling his two-year-old son for the sum of #600,000.
According to reports, the Ogun State PPRO, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident, disclosed that the suspect was arrested following a report lodged at the Agbara divisional headquarters by the suspect’s wife, Mrs Bright Essien.
Oyeyemi reiterated that the wife had notified the police that her husband informed her of securing a job for her in Bamako, Mali in October 2021.
He quoted her as saying that she didn’t suspect any foul play as the man had assisted many people to that country for greener pastures before.
The PPRO explained that the wife said when she got to Mali, she found out that she had been sold to a human trafficking cartel headed by a woman at the price of "1.4million.
“While in Mali, she was forced into prostitution, but later found her way back to the Nigerian embassy in Bamako where she was assisted back to Nigeria.
“On getting to Nigeria, she discovered that her two-year-old son in the care of her husband was nowhere to be found,” the police spokesperson said.
He said following the report, the Agbara division ordered detectives to go after the suspect, and he was eventually arrested.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to perpetrating the crime, while confessing further that he sold the two years old son to somebody at the rate of #600,000,” he said.
Oyeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered the transfer of the suspect to the anti-human trafficking and child labour unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for thorough investigation and ordered that the buyer of the son must be tracked and arrested to recover the stolen child.
