When Kelechi Ugo met Kanayo several years back at
Comprehensive Secondary School, Amakohia in Imo State, she saw a young man with
a promising future. She did not, in her wildest imagination, envisage that
situations would make him harm her in any way. Unfortunately, the reverse
turned out to be the case as her heartthrob ended up not only abandoning her
but sold their two-year-old son for a paltry N300,000.
My ordeal
Narrating her ordeal, the 28-year-old catering apprentice
told Crime Guard: “I met Kanayo while we were in secondary school in Imo
State and we started dating. After our secondary education, we went our
separate ways. As fate would have it, we became reunited in 2006 during the
Christmas season and we continued from where we stopped. Later, I got pregnant
for him and informed him and he accepted.
“While I was pregnant, he came to see my parents and
informed them that he was responsible for putting me in the family way. After
that, he never came back and I didn’t hear from him till I put to bed.
Immediately I delivered, he started calling me, but I refused to pick his calls
because I felt abandoned. But later, I began to pick his calls and pardoned him
on the condition that he should come to my family and perform all the necessary
things. But he never did, and that was why my family disapproved of our
relationship.
They warned me severally but I kept on believing that
when things got better for him, he would do the necessary things. So, we kept
seeing each other. Even when things were difficult for him, I stood by him. And
when he had accident and was hospitalised, I kept visiting him.”
Formal hand over of our child
‘’After he recovered from the accident, he informed me
that he wanted his elder sister to take our son, Samuel, while we relocate to
Lagos. Initially, I refused because I didn’t like the idea of living separately
with my two-year-old son. I later agreed after much persuasion that it was for
our greater good and that in less than three months, when he could adequately
provide for our needs, our son would come and live with us in Lagos. Also, I
discovered that I was pregnant for our second child and there was no way I
could refuse to go with him.
“However, I did not know that the woman he introduced to
me as his elder sister, is a retired nurse who specializes in child
racketeering. Kanayo never told me that he was going to sell my son. All he
said was that he wanted Samuel to live with his elder sister in Owerri while we
move to Lagos so that he could get a better job.”
Kanayo, Kelechi and their son
Relocation to Lagos
“When we got to Lagos, we lodged in an hotel at Ikotun
before a friend of his, Jerry, helped us to secure an apartment which Kanayo
paid for. Barely a week in the new place, he said he got a painting contract in
Owerri and he travelled. He left me with my second pregnancy and no feeding
money but sent Jerry to give me N1,000.
All this while, I wasn’t myself knowing that my son
was far away in Owerri. I kept demanding that he bring my son back to Lagos.
When I kept pestering him, he assured me that his sister’s husband would bring
my son back to me in Lagos.”
“That same day, I called him at about 6pm and he said
that his sister’s husband and my son were involved in an accident and they
died.
I called his sister who confirmed the incident. It was
then I cried to Jerry and his wife who live in the neighbourhood and told them
what had happened. They consoled me and assured me that all would be well. They
however shocked me by revealing that Kanayo had told them that he was never
going to marry me, that I was not presentable and not up to his standard. But
deep inside me, I refused to believe that my son was dead.”
Abandoned in Lagos
“So, when the landlord came to complain that Kanayo
called him to refund the house rent because of the condition of the bathroom,
which Kanayo had complained about before, I got scared. It became obvious that
he wanted to abandon me again here in Lagos like he did back home, during my
first pregnancy. Feeling abandoned in a strange land, it was then I told the
landlord of how he gave our son to his sister and later claimed they died in an
accident. After narrating the incident to the landlord, he advised me to make
an entry at the police station, which I did. We had to trick Kanayo to come to
Lagos. The landlord called him to come and take back the money he paid for the
apartment. And he fell for it.”
Landlord intervenes
“The landlord and I planned it. Immediately he
arrived, police from Ikotun Division arrested him. After thorough
interrogation, he revealed that he used our son to borrow money. When the case
was later transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Ikeja, he
admitted that he actually sold our son to a woman in Port Harcourt. Detectives
then proceeded to Port Harcourt and arrested the nurse who provided the
telephone number of the woman whom she claimed she sold my son to.
“The police then used the number to trace the woman to
Nkanu in Enugu State and arrested her together with her sister-in-law that introduced
her to the nurse. They were also able to recover my son.”
Nurse tells her story
In her defence, the 45-year-old retired nurse who
masterminded the entire arrangement told Crime Guard: “I am a mother of
three from Ikeduru Local Government Area in Imo State. I reside at Satellite
village in Port Harcourt. I don’t operate a baby factory, but while I worked as
a nurse in a hospital, the doctor who is now late was involved in this kind of
business. Sometime ago, Cecilia called me on phone that she wanted to adopt a
baby boy. I told her that none was available but I assured her that as soon as
anyone was available, I would reach her. So, when my brother, Emmanuel, called
that his friend, Kanayo, wanted to sell his son, I contacted Cecilia who was
excited about the development.
“We agreed to do the transaction in Owerri. Kanayo
came with his wife, Kelechi, and son. Initially, she was reluctant to let go of
her son but eventually, she did as I claimed to be the elder brother of Kanayo.
We paid Kanayo N450,000 out of the N650,000 we collected from Mrs Cecelia
Nwatu. I knew that the baby was being sold and I knew that it is a crime to
sell a child. The reason I agreed to be part of the transaction is because it
was the father of the child that decided to sell his child.
“Before the transaction, he signed a written agreement
that he was selling off his child. My brother, Emmanuel, collected N100,000
from the remaining N200,000 and gave me N100,000. I used part of the money to
pay my children’s school fees and invested the remaining amount into my
business. I was arrested in Port Harcourt. I didn’t know where Cecilia who
bought the child lives. So, I gave the police her phone number.”
Buyer opens up
Cecilia Nwatu, 42, a mother of three who bought the
child also spoke to Crime Guard: “I live in Nkanu, Enugu State. I am
married with three children, two female and a male. I am a civil servant and I
work at Nkanu Local Government Council. For long, my husband and I had been
trying to adopt a male child since our 10-year-old only son is disabled. He is
unable to talk. We wanted a son to bear the family name. I was deceived. I told
Nkechi, the nurse, that I needed a child to adopt. When she brought the child,
I asked if that was how adoption is done. She told me that they have several
processes involved in adoption and this was one of them. I loved the child as
my own and cared for him as my own child. That was why I named him Tochukwu (Praise
God), and put him in a private nursery school.
“My husband is in the hospital. He is paralysed and
has been in the hospital for three months. I am the one taking care of him all
this while. If I had known, I would not have gotten involved in this.” Weeping
profusely, she lamented that she was misled by Nkechi Obi, who told her that it
was a legal process of adoption.
“My children”, she concluded, “are aged 13, 12 and 10
respectively.”
Sister-in-law of buyer speaks
The sister-in-law to the buyer, Gladys Nwobodo, 38,
who accompanied her during the transaction, also spoke to Crime Guard: “I
have three children. The woman who bought the child is my brother’s wife. She
asked me to accompany her to Owerri to collect the child. On our way back to
Enugu State, she told me she paid N650,000. The reason she decided to adopt the
child is because her only son is living with disability. We thought it was a
legal adoption process we didn’t know it wasn’t.”
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