Man, 36 traffics wife to Mali for prostitution, sells son for N600,000

Kingsley Essien, 36, was detained by men from the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali for prostitution and selling her two-year-old baby for N600,000.

DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, the state Police Public Relations Officer, said in a statement on Thursday that the suspect was apprehended after his wife, Bright Essien, filed a report at the Agbara divisional headquarters.

The PPRO said, “Bright reported that sometime in October 2021, her husband, Kingsley Essien, informed her that he had secured a job for her in Bamako Mali, and that he had assisted many people to that country for greener pastures before.

“She explained further that being her husband, she didn’t suspect any foul play until she got to Mali only to discover that she had been sold to a human trafficker cartel headed by a woman at the rate of N1,400,000.

“While in Mali, she was forced into prostitution, but later found her way 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 care of her husband was nowhere to be found.

“Upon the report, the DPO, Agbara division, SP Abiodun Salau, detailed detectives to go after the suspect, and he was eventually arrested.

“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime; he confessed further that he sold the two-year-old son to somebody at the rate of N600,000.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered that the son’s buyer be tracked down and detained, according to a police official.