Three women sentenced to death for kidnapping children.
3 min read
As adult Nigerians keep violating the rights of their fellow Nigerians especially children who can’t defend themselves, the long arm of the law has cought up with three women who were on Friday 2 June 2023 sentenced to death by hanging for kidnapping and selling of children in Akwa Ibom State. While delivering judgement on the matter, Justice Gabriel Ette of Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo on Friday last week being June 2, pronnounced death sentence on the three women identified as Enobong Nsikak Sunday (38), Gertrude Thompson Akpan (48), and Mary Okon James (49). According the the judgement, the condemned women were found guilty of conspiracy and kidnapping, punishable by death under Section 1 of the Akwa Ibom State Internal Security and Enforcement Law, 2009.
One of the condemned women named Nsikak Sunday, said to be a mother of two from Atiamkpat community in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, was not successful in her last operation where she wanted to kidnap a two-year old baby girl she met at a vigil in Ifa Atai, Uyo. From the reports Umuaka Times monitored on the internet last week, the woman confessed to the crime and narrated how she carried it out.
From the details of what happened, the popular Linda Ikeji Blog explains thus.
“The second convict, a native of Ikot Eyo in Nsit Ubium, Gertrude, said she made a profit of N500,000 per child she kidnapped and N200,000 for those brought to her for sale. The last business which landed her in prison was two children, aged two years and ten months, she kidnapped on 16th December 2018 at Abak Road, Uyo, after deceiving their mother that the wife of the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Martha Udom Emmanuel was empowering the poor and that she will take her to the First Lady for help.
Also, Mary Okon James, a native of Obotim in Nsit Ibom, who bought one of the children at N200,000 and sold at N500,000 in Aba, was convicted.
Justice Ette said the confessional statements of the accused persons link each other and firmly established that they constitute a sophisticated syndicate for their infamous trade.
“For a woman to have gone to that extent, it means she has sealed her conscience with a hot iron and thereby become a threat to civilized society as every child is her potential victim. You have, by your conduct, disqualified yourself from continuing to walk free in organized society as every child is your potential victim.
Mary Okon Bassey, a native of Obotim village in Nsit Ibom Local Government, 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. This you did with no human empathy and not minding what fate awaits your innocent victims and what arrow you have caused to pierce the hearts of their hapless parents. You did this so you may live big and comfortably.
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 life time 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” “.
