The Ozubulu community in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State has disowned a woman, Chinyere Chukwu, who was arrested two weeks ago while attempting to sell two of her sons for N1.8 million.
The mother of 11 children was arrested alongside her 17-year-old daughter, Joy Chukwu, whom she conspired with to sell off the children.
Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare Ify Obinabo had posed as a buyer for the children after she got a hint of Chukwu’s willingness to sell them off.
While being interrogated after she was arrested, Chinyere Chukwu said she was from Ozubulu and that her husband had died after she had just two children. She has since been giving birth to children for other men and wanted to sell off two to take care of the others.
However, a delegation of Ozubulu people who visited the office of the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare insisted that the woman was not from their community.
The delegation, led by the President General of the community, Chief Chris Ononuju, and Lady Ndupu Clara, said the suspect only resided in the community but was neither an indigene nor married to any member of the community.
Ononuju said: “We have done every investigation, and all the results say she is not from Ozubulu. She is not from Ozubulu, and she is not married in Ozubulu.
“The man she mentioned as her husband, whom she claimed has died, is still alive. He is our brother, and his wife died six or seven years ago. The man has not remarried anyone. She only lives in the man’s house as a tenant.
“This woman only lived in our community, and she is someone whose activities are not clear, and she has been written to and asked to leave the community before now. She came to the community with her husband and resided, but had differences with her husband, and the man left her, and she now claims the man had died.”
He said further: “We are embarrassed by this attitude of smearing the name of our community. We do not know her, and she is not married to us, and she knows that the children are not from the man she is claiming.”
He said the delegation decided to visit the office of the commissioner to correct the wrong impression created by the culprit.