Since the ugly story was made public a couple of weeks ago, the question on the lips of many: is what on earth would make a father sell his own children?
While some are yet to fathom the root cause of the wicked act from this dad from hell, others see it as a sign of the endtime.
Whatever the reason or rationale behind the evil trade, people of Agbor, Delta State, where the act was perpetrated were and are still shocked over the incident. In fact, since August 7, 2012, when the middle-aged man, identified as Patrick Obazi, was paraded for allegedly selling his three children to a group of ritualists for a price of one million Naira, the town has been abuzz with the news.
The devious scheme was aborted at Owa Alero, a suburb of Agbor, by military men after they got a tip off and caught the ritualists as they were making away with the children locked in the trunk of their Volvo car.
The shock came when during interrogation the ritualists insisted they were not kidnappers and that they had formally bought the three kids from their father for the sum of one million Naira.
It was further revealed that they picked the children from their day care centre, after their father had deceived the kids that they would be picked up by their uncles.
Meanwhile, SE findings revealed that Patrick Obazi, the father who sold his children, a native of Igbanke in Orhiomwon Local Government Area of Edo State, had earlier reported to the military men that his children had been kidnapped by the day care centre workers.
After the children, Precious, 2, Joy, 3, and Chukwuyem, 4, were recovered from the ritualists, their father was subsequently arrested, even as he fervently denied having knowledge of the plot, maintaining that he never sold any of his children to the ritualists.
Obazi’s lid was blown up when further investigations and search conducted at his house, however, proved him a liar as the sum of one million Naira was discovered in his room and he was subsequently left with no choice but to confess.
The Army Commander in charge of Agbor zone, Captain Ubachukwu Solomon Agbo, gave a background to the development.
According to him, the “criminal dad” himself, came earlier on to report that his children were missing.
“We discovered that the three children were taken to a day care centre, where he had first tried to sell them off,” he narrated.
According to Captain Agbo, the seemingly mentally-challenged father of the kids had earlier in the day, asked one of the teachers at the day care, known as Aunty Grace, if she knew of anybody who might be interested in buying his children for one million Naira.
The perplexed teacher had simply ignored the “weird” father.
SE spoke with neighbours of Obazi, and the general consensus was that the man in question has always behaved strangely like a mentally-challenged person, therefore the neigbours were not surprised at the latest development.
“He is not normal, always talking to himself, and very poor. He is a vulcaniser, but he does not get a lot of customers, hence he became very poor, which was the reason his wife and mother of his kids left him”, revealed one of his neighbours, who identified himself as Richard.
As at the time of writing this report, Obazi is languishing in police custody where he is helping out with further investigations.
All efforts to speak with the Delta State Police Command
On the issue proved abortive.
