Child trafficking: Oyo suspect reveals how she sold her own babies, stole 19 children

A suspected child trafficker, Adejoke Popoola, has confessed to selling two sets of her own children and kidnapping 19 others for sale, according to Punch Newspapers. Speaking to journalists at the Oyo State Police Command in Ibadan, Popoola said she began the trade in October 2024, selling newborns to a clinic that resold them in Lagos.

She admitted posing as a house-hunter and a spiritualist to steal children, including a disabled child’s caregiver ruse. Popoola described snatching a three-year-old boy during an Egungun festival in Oyo Town.

She disclosed that six of the 19 kidnapped children died in captivity, while 13 survived. Police say the case exposed a wider interstate trafficking and ritual-killing network.