A magistrate’s court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has sentenced Godknows Thompson and Kpereobong Emmanson to 24 years’ imprisonment for stealing a two-year-old child.
The convicts were said to have committed the crime in 2020 while the child’s mother was sweeping her premises in Oyigbo, Rivers State.
Justice Amaka Amanze found the accused guilty and sentenced the duo to seven years’ imprisonment on count one (conspiracy); 10 years on count two (child stealing); and seven years on count three (child trafficking).
The judge said the 24 years’ sentence will run concurrently.
According to Counsel for the International Federation of Women Lawyers in Rivers State, Kemi Ogunaike, the convict went into the child’s mother’s house and kidnapped the two years and four months old boy when the mother was sweeping.
Ogunaike said the grieving mother started looking for her son, but did not find him. Thomson was later apprehended by the police.
She added that the first convict (Thomson) who was known by the child, fled with him.
The convict was said to have confessed that he gave the child to the second defendant (Emmanson) and throughout the trial, they both refused to tell the court who they gave the child to and till date, the boy has not been found.