The fake lawyer, Ezurum Joseph & fake nurse, Uju Okonkwo
The gallant officials of the Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad (SAKS) of the Nigerian Police in Asaba, the Delta State capital, has arrested a 43-year-old fake nurse, Uju Okonkwo, who reportedly sold a 3-month-old baby to a Lagos-based businessman for
N500,000.
The force has also nabbed a fake lawyer, Ezurum Joseph, who claimed to have graduated from the Nnamdi Azikwe University (NAU), Anambra State, in 2011 with registration number 39017, along with Okonkwo.
According to a report by New Telegraph, over the years, Joseph has provided the hideouts where Okonkwo was using to harbour her victims and has stood as the woman’s solicitor.
The fake lawyer confessed that he dropped out of school after he could not pass four courses, which prevented him from attending Law School. However, Joseph has since been defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.
Three female human trafficking victims, Chinyere Ude (19), Happiness Igwe (20) and Esther Frank (17), who were respectively in their advanced stages of pregnancy, were rescued from the traffickers’ den.
The girls disclosed that they were brought to the hideout by Okonkwo, a widow, who claimed to have worked at Chinonso Hospital, Nkpor in Anambra State, for the purpose of selling their babies after delivery.
The state Commissioner of Police, Zanna Ibrahim, who paraded the suspects with the pregnant girls in Asaba, said Okonkwo was nabbed after an intensive surveillance by his men. Gnashing her teeth on the parade ground, Okonkwo, who said she had no registered name for her organisation and had been in the game with the lawyer for over one year, confessed that she sold a baby for N500,000 to a Lagos-based businessman.
Ibrahim described the suspects as human traffickers. He said: “The matter before us is a complete case of human trafficking and other related offences. Only God knows how many innocent children they have sold into slavery, to unknown persons for money rituals.
“The suspects have started helping us in our investigations.” The commissioner said the war against crimes must be won “to stop careless wastage of lives and property”.
