Court jails retired matron for trading in baby business. Bought at N50k, sold for N200k

An Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced a 47-year-old retired matron, Gertrude Akpan, to 10 years in prison for child trafficking without an option of fine.

Akpan was said to have bought a six-year-old boy in Uyo and transferred him to Owerri in Imo State where she sold the victim for N200,000, to one Kate Ogbonna, an indigene of Bende in Abia State.

Akpan, a mother of three children from Ikot Eyo in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and a retired staff of Immanuel Hospital, Eket, who retired as a matron in 2015, confessed that she has been in the business of selling and buying children since 2008.

According to the evidence of the prosecution, one Ubong Ekwere had on May 12, 2018, abducted the six-year-old boy who was in lawful custody of his grandmother.

The victim was said to have been sold to the convict for N50,000, who in turn sold the child to Kate Ogbonna in Owerri for N200,000.