Kelvin Okorie (aka Okito), the maternal cousin of the 15-year-old Ogun schoolgirl, Precious Nwaigwe, who was kidnapped and sold to Libya, has said he was paid N10,000 for the deal.

Okorie spoke on Tuesday at the Police Command Headquarters in Ikeja, where he was paraded along with his friend, Ogbonna Njoku (aka John).

Njoku’s brother, Nzube Chukwu, who is based in Libya, was said to have taken custody of Precious before selling her to a love-vendor.

The love-vendor claimed she bought Precious for $6,000 and forced her to work for the money.


PUNCH Metro had reported that Precious returned to the country on Friday after she finished paying the money and an additional 500 dinars.

She had told our correspondent that she was betrayed by Okorie, who she trusted.

Precious on Tuesday said she observed Okorie arguing with his friends over money, without suspecting that it was his share of her sale that he was asking for.

She also admitted joining street girls in Libya, after she was tortured by the love-vendor so she could raise the $6,000.


“I spent almost a year paying the money,” she said.

However, Okorie, a tiler, while talking to journalists, denied knowing the money he collected on the fateful day had anything to do with Precious being trafficked.

He said, “There was a day I was going to my house in Ojota when a lady called me and said she was my cousin. I said I did not know her, but after she introduced herself to me, I recognised her.
“I asked what she was doing in that area by that timeof the night because it was 10pm. She said I should come and see a guy, who she introduced to me as her boyfriend.

“She followed me to my house, together with one of my friends, Daniel. She narrated everything that happened to her and how she was attacked by cultists in Ode Remo.”

Okorie said his friend, Daniel, who was to travel asked him if Precious would be interested in travelling with him.
He said he was happy and discussed it with the victim, who agreed.

“She said she had not finished schooling, but I said she could go there to continue her education and even work at a filling station where she could make money and send to her parents.
“It was after that day that we went to Ogbonna (Njoku)’s place in Alaba. Ogbonna gave us the number of his brother in Libya and I did not know what they planned. It was while we were at Alaba that Daniel gave me N10, 000.”


However, Njoku said his brother, Chukwu, had only spent three years in Libya and that he did not know the business he was into.

Njoku, who sells compact discs in Alaba market, claimed Okorie, Precious and Daniel only visited him and demanded his brother’s phone number, which he gave them.

“Immediately I connected them with my brother, I left them. I was surprised when the police arrested me. I did not know anything about this. It was after my arrest that I learnt what happened,” he added.

A mild drama however played out when the police spokesperson, Kenneth Nwosu, put the two suspects together and querried them.

Below is an excerpt of what played out.

Police PRO: Okorie, the N10, 000 you collected was for what?

Okorie: I said I did not have money and that was why Daniel gave me the money.

Police PRO: Was the money meant for the sale of Ugochi (Precious)?

Okorie: He just gave me the money.

Police PRO: What was it meant for?

Okorie: (Stammers)….I collected the money, I did not mean to sell her.

Police PRO: Did you tell Ugochi’s mother before taking her to Libya?

Okorie: No, I didn’t tell her.

Police PRO: Why did you lie to Ugochi that you told her mother you were taking her to Libya?


Okorie: (Stammers…) Daniel said I should lie to her (Precious).

Police PRO: The girl’s mother is your cousin, the time Ugochi was missing, you were aware, why didn’t you tell her her daughter’s whereabouts when you saw her?

Okorie: Sir, I am very sorry.

Police PRO: Did Okorie tell you that Ugochi was missing and her parents were looking for her?

Njoku: No, he didn’t tell me they were looking for her.

Police PRO: Okorie, did you tell him or not that they were looking for her?

Okorie: I told him

Njoku: Can we swear about that?


Nwosu said the suspects would soon be taken to court, adding that the police had already arraigned three other suspects earlier arrested in connection with the abduction.

They are Innocent Onyekwe (38), Ugwu Maduabuchi (37) and Christian Chima (19).

The Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, said the police liberated the victim.

He said, “The investigation process was long, tortuous and harrowing. We deployed cutting edge technology and adopted out-of-the-box tactics to achieve results. At every turn, the safe liberation of the victim was top on our operational engagements, taking into account the pains and trauma of the parents.

“Numerous suspects were arrested, but the breakthrough came when a decoy team of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, led by the Officer-in-Charge of the squad, SP Abba Kyari, arrested Okorie, a cousin to the mother of the victim. Through him, contact was established with the gang members in Libya, which subsequently led to the safe return of the victim to Lagos on Friday, almost a year after her abduction.”


http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/i-was-paid-only-n10000-ogun-schoolgirls-cousin/



Photo: Okorie, Njoku and Precious | credits: Samson Folarin

15yr old girl worked as a sex machine to pay a dept she didn't owe $6000 converted to naira =#1,193,000 imagine the kind of pain and sorrow the little girl went through

All the ppl involved will never succeed in their life's (Amen)


same game they play in Italy too.

This man who took ten thousand naira, or the paltry sum of fifty muffugin US dollars, for the sale of a child to kidnappers, should be given a fair trial, and then taken outside to be shot dead.

If there is any problem looking for shooters to conduct this cleanup exercise, I will gladly PAY ten thousand naira for the privilege of using my own 12-gauge shotgun to blast open the enormous cranium of that dim-witted slave trader.

10K nd u ar happy, u sold human being lyk u just to av tecno android phone. This one can sell his mother for 5k afta all shes old.

God is watching

PapiWata:
This man who took ten thousand naira, or the paltry sum of fifty muffugin US dollars, for the sale of a child to kidnappers, should be given a fair trial, and then taken outside to be shot dead.

If there is any problem looking for shooters to conduct this cleanup exercise, I will gladly PAY ten thousand naira for the privilege of using my own 12-gauge shotgun to blast open the enormous cranium of that dim-witted slave trader.

see eh the thing tire me. poverty is really a disease 10k for a whole human being you can't even buy a small ram with that 10k talk less of human. karma await them all and the woman in libya too

And the frog is still lying. PapiWata, if you can get through, I will add another N10k for you to blow him to pieces.

What sort of inhumanity is this?

well ntn to sey.....

If death penalty is passed on this ones now everybody would later come out to cry fowl, just cant imagine what the little girl had gone thru, it will surely affect the rest of her life. Selling your cousin just cuz of money?? 10k that would be spent under few hours!!!! chaiiii

and

choi

Na wa o

Dos above me av said it all

Igbos can do anything for money sha Imagine selling selling ur cousin for 10k. not up to techno S5 phone. SMH

10k to sell ur blood. Yeye dey smell. :o10k to sell ur blood. Yeye dey smell.

[size=18pt]TO MANY IGBO PEOPLE WORLDWIDE,

"NA BUSY-NESS"[/size]

Evil evil evrrywhere

Story

Aint u a bastard

#put him in underground jail

dff

OK dem Don unban me, shege, that mod wey ban me, ur papa laps, waka, shege,

Mk I continue where I stop, All Hail Biafra

N10,000??

Ife eme! Nwa agbogho ka di 15 ka ndi aruruala a jiri mee akwuna kwuna. Chai! Aru!

How did this manage to make fp?

10k Chai?

Mr. Man why will ur "friend" give u 10k to take ur relative to another country? Isn't it to be the other way round?

10K for a human being
I'm glad they were apprehended and I hope that they get the punishment they deserve