Child traffickers sentenced in Anambra

The Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court, sitting in Awka, Anambra State, has sentenced two young men, Mr. Kingsley Chinedu Okeke, 22, and Mr. Chukwuemeka to multiple prison terms Nweke, 27, for crimes related to child trafficking. .

The spokesperson of the Anambra State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Protection, Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, disclosed this in a statement to newsmen on Thursday.

According to her, the convicts were brought to trial before the Court, during 2023, on a level 4 charge, close to child theft and illegal child trafficking; fraudulently luring and harboring a little boy aged one year and two months; forcibly isolate the child from the legal possession of his or her parents; and inflicting physical injury, punishable respectively under the Penal Code, the Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria, 1991, the Anambra State Child Rights Act, 2004, and the Anambra State Violence Against Persons (Prohibition and Protection) Laws, 2017.

Delivering her judgment, the Chief Magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe, found the accused guilty on all four counts against them, while also reprimanding them for wasting the court's time by uttering blatant lies under oath, while throughout the trial.

“Based on the oral testimony of the defendants, their written depositions, made promptly, the observations of the plaintiff's witnesses, as well as the other documents filed before the Court, concerning the case; there was overwhelming evidence against the defendants, and the prosecutor had proven his case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the court said.

The court further added that all sentences would be concurrent, without the possibility of a fine.

The State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon. Mrs. Ify Obinabo, who expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the Court's judgment, also commended the court's efforts to protect children and vulnerable members of society.

The commissioner, while assuring that she would do everything in her power to bring to justice the third suspect, who is on the run, further warned potential offenders to turn the page or leave the state.