Photo: Court
A Kano State High Court has sentenced a man, Paul Owne, to 91 years in prison for kidnapping and child-trafficking.
The court found Owne guilty of 38 charges filed against him by the state government and convicted him of masterminding the kidnapping of children in Kano for sale in Onitsha, Anambra State.
Delivering judgment on Friday, the trial judge, Justice Zuwaira Yusuf, convicted Owne on counts 2, 8, 9, 2, 27 and 34, and sentenced him to seven years for each count without an option of fine, in addition to a fine of N100,000.
The court also convicted him on counts 3, 5, 10, 11, 22, 28 and 38 and sentenced him to seven years for each and additional N100,000 for conspiring with six other persons for the kidnap of the children who were mostly under five years and teenagers.
According to the Judge, all the sentences are to run concurrently.
The convict was arraigned before the court alongside five other defendants whose trial is continuing after they pleaded not guilty to all the charges filed against them.
Periscope International recalls that the Kano State Police Command had in 2019 announced the kidnapping of nine children in the state in separate incidents, all of whom were renamed and sold off in Onitsha, Anambra State.
The police had, while parading the suspects, disclosed that they busted the syndicate behind the kidnaping and sale of children, arrested the eight suspects and returned the children to their parents.
The police had also said that they carried out the operation in Onitsha following a five-year public outcry in Kano over missing children.
According to the police, the syndicate specialised in kidnapping, concealment and confinement of kidnapped persons, buying and selling of minors and trafficking in persons.
