Photo: Nigerian mother jailed for attempting to sell her twins

A Katsina State Senior Magistrates’ Court has sentenced to 10 months in jail, Salima Lawal, who was arrested for attempting to sell her 32-day-old twins for N350,000 in December last year.

The court, however, gave the convict, a resident of Marabar kankara town in the Malumfashi Local Government Area of the state, an option of N10,000 fine.





In his judgment on Wednesday evening, the presiding magistrate, Nuradeen El-Laden, explained that he gave Lawal a light sentence in view of the health of the twins and that of the mother herself.

He noted that a woman attempting to sell her children might have been battling abject poverty.

El-Laden noted that the convict and her babies had spent a number of days in the prison custody, adding that Lawal had shown remorse for her action.

There were indications that a woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, had offered to pay the fine on behalf of the convict.

The police arraigned Lawal for alleged violation of Section 278 of the Penal Code, which the magistrate frowned on, noting that the section dealt with intention to sell kids for prostitution.