Daniel Chigozie, an Ogun State resident, has narrated how he and Chinwe Blessing, his wife, sold their own baby multiple times in a fraudulent stint that raised over N1 million.
Chigozie spoke to The PUNCH in an interview on Saturday, claiming his wife arranged the trafficking of their nine-month-old baby through different buyers.
“I am here (in custody) because I was involved in child trafficking. I sold my child because I needed money to fund my business and assist my wife, as she has two other children who need to be catered for. One is currently seeking admission, but the other is at the University of Ilorin,” Chigozie said in the interview.
“I needed money for my business and to cater for my family. She (Blessing) had the baby through caesarean section and that was what made me go to my uncle’s wife. We never thought or spoke about selling the baby. My wife told me to tell her (my uncle’s wife) that a lady had a baby for me and ran away and that I couldn’t take care of the baby by myself. She (my uncle’s wife) knows that I have a wife and as such, I will not be able to deal with the baby. So, she gave me money to support my business.”
Chigozie said that Blessing went to challenge his uncle’s wife two days after he had received some money from her. According to Chigozie, Blessing informed his uncle’s wife that she was the mother of the child and forcefully regained custody.
After they regained custody of their baby, the couple set their sights on a new buyer for their baby. Chigozie said that Blessing introduced a more effective way to recover their baby using the police after every purchase.
“She then spoke with her friend, who is a doctor at Meiran. The friend agreed and she gave me N400,000. I later returned to the house after two days when my wife called me on the phone to ask about how we would recover the baby. She then told me to go to the police station and talk to an investigating police officer,” Chigozie said.
“She promised that nothing would happen to me. She said all I needed to do was to give the police my uncle’s wife’s contact and that of her friend who bought the baby. I went to the police station as she said and I did what was requested. I later returned home.
“But recently, my wife told us to go to a hospital to claim that her friend gave birth to our baby and ran away and was nowhere to be found and that she (my wife) would not be able to take care of the baby.
“I was then connected to a doctor at Apapa, who agreed to pay N700,000, and after the payment, I arranged to settle everyone else involved, including a nurse.
“My wife was there to always claim the baby back from whoever we sold him to. As I said, she claimed him back from my uncle’s wife and her friend. She used to go and report at the police station that some people were claiming ownership of her child and she would call me to testify so that the police would recover the baby for us.”
Chigozie revealed that Blessing and the unnamed nurse were all in on the trafficking of his baby. He also claimed that they all received a share of the N150,000, N400,000 and N700,000 they received from buyers on separate occasions.
“On February 15, my wife told me she was going to the market, but she suddenly came in with some policemen. I was surprised because that was not our discussion before she left home, as she only told me that she was going to buy some things from the market. Immediately I saw the policemen with her, I went to the kitchen to get a knife to stab myself in the arm to prevent the police from arresting me. It was after the police people left that my wife brought Amotekun officers who arrested me. Since then, I have been in their custody. I was arrested in Sango Ota and transferred to Abeokuta.
“I was the one that explained to the Amotekun Corps that we had done this business three times already. She did not tell them the truth about how it all started. After I disclosed this to them, she started threatening me that she would make sure that I rot in jail. She used to bring food for me at one point but I had to stop eating her food because I dreamt that she killed me the night before she got me arrested. Now, she is threatening to make me rot in jail.”
