Yohanna Saidolo, from Adamawa State, North East Nigeria, has allegedly sold six his neighbours’ six children after telling the parents he wanted to enroll them in a missionary school.
Saidolo reportedly took away the children from Koma village in Jada Local Government Area of the state after lying to their parents that he secured admission for them to study at a missionary school in Yola, the State capital.
He was said to have delivered the children to one Madam Lydia of Rhumde-Baru neighborhood at the Jambutu satellite town in Yola.
One of the parents, Markus Anthony said Saidolo took their children, six of them in number, promising to enroll them in a missionary school in Yola, but since then they could not set eyes on any of them.
“We couldn’t hear from our kids, and they could not come home for any holiday; not even during Christmas”, Anthony lamented.
Suspecting a foul play, Anthony and five other parents, reported the matter to the police, according a police Prosecutor, Ibrahim Aliyu.
Upon his arrest, Saidolo confessed to have sold off the children to Madam Lydia but failed to disclose the agreed price.
“I actually delivered eight children to Madam Lydia among them two of my own children,” he told SaharaReporters.
Saidolo was on Wednesday charged to a Chief Magistrate Court in connection with the crime, which is contrary to sections 257 and 259 of the State’s penal code law, 2018.
The judge, Alheri Ishaku, ordered his remand at a correctional center facility after he pleaded guilty to the crime. He accordingly granted the prosecution’s application for transmitting the case file to the Department of Public Prosecution for further advice.
In the meantime, the whereabouts of the children remains unknown, as the police continue with investigation.
The case was adjourned to March 25, 2022
Attachments area