A suspected member of a notorious child-stealing and human trafficking syndicate, Adejoke Popoola, has confessed to selling four of her own biological children before venturing into abducting other children for sale.
A Popoola made the shocking disclosure while being paraded alongside her accomplices at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters in Eleyele, Ibadan, on Monday, September 7.
Addressing journalists, the suspect revealed that her involvement in the illicit trade began in October 2024. Since then, she and her team members have allegedly abducted and sold numerous children, including a newborn baby and a set of twins.
“God blessed me with the gift of pregnancy. Anytime a man has s#x with me, I get pregnant, I give birth to twins. I have sold the twins to one Oluwakemi clinic for N300, 000. She also resells them to her customers in Lagos. She has a baby industry. When the owner of the pregnancy rejects the pregnancy, that is when I sell. Sometimes I get N80,000 or N120,000 for each child I sell” she said.
Popoola said she had seven children of her own, adding that some of them were married.
Popoola said a woman she worked with at Ogeere Market introduced her to child trafficking. She claimed to have posed as a spiritualist and targeted parents with children living with disabilities.
“Sometimes, I disguise myself as a spiritualist. Parents bring their disabled children to me because they cannot talk, sit, or walk. So, I will promise them that I can help them to heal, then I will go and pick another person’s child for them,” she said.
She further recounted how she stole a three-year-old boy, Ifakunle Ifagbenro, during an Egungun festival in Oyo Town.
“I went to an Egungun festival to steal a child, Ifakunle. I woke up early and asked a bike man to drive me to the place where they were holding the Egungun festival, so he drove me to the house. When I entered the house, they were praying, so I joined them and I even gave them money for the prayer.
When the Egungun left, the boy told his mother that he did not want to stay at home and wanted to join the procession. So, I volunteered to help hold the boy.
I joined them for the procession and, in the evening, I picked up the boy, laid him on my back and ran away with him,” she said.
Popoola claimed that six children had d!ed out of the 19 children she had allegedly kidnapped.
“About six children d!ed from the 19 children I have kidnapped, but 13 are alive,” she said
Watch a video of Popoola confessing below
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