By SCM Religion Writer
IKOYI, Lagos – A SELF-STYLED “Prophetess” who claimed to be doing God’s work has been caged after she was caught red-handed buying two young children in a sickening fake adoption scam.
Lying preacher Prophetess Nwachukwu paid a dodgy pastor ₦550,000 (around £250) for each toddler before secretly smuggling them more than 600 miles across the country.
She insisted she was simply acting as a “good Samaritan” helping a fellow churchgoer adopt a child.
Busted by Justice: Nwachukwu’s name and photograph will now be entered into Nigeria’s National Trafficking Offenders Register, and she will be subjected to strict law enforcement monitoring upon her release.
The Secret Money Transfer
The scandalous racket unraveled after law enforcement officers intercepted the stolen youngsters in the bustling coastal megacity of Lagos, hundreds of miles away from their home state.
A court in Jos, Nigeria, heard how the rogue holy woman struck a secret deal with a local cleric, Pastor Bernard, paying cash on the barrelhead for the defenseless children.
She then had the toddlers bundled into transport and shipped straight to Lagos without the knowledge, permission, or consent of their real parents.
When police swooped in and rescued the kids, Nwachukwu claimed she had done nothing wrong — insisting the transaction was a legitimate adoption arranged for a member of her congregation.
Lies Exposed in Court
During a explosive trial at the National Industrial Court in Jos, state prosecutors dismantled the preacher’s pious cover story piece by piece.
Prosecuting barrister Joel Tahvan told the court that Nwachukwu could not produce:
A single piece of adoption paperwork
Written parental consent from the biological parents
Any authorization from official social welfare departments
Proof of compliance with regional child rights laws
Instead, video and written confessional statements made by Nwachukwu herself proved she had facilitated the cash-for-babies deal without even knowing where the toddlers originally came from or who their parents were.
’Crime, Not Adoption’
Presiding judge Hon. Justice Ibrahim Galadima threw out Nwachukwu’s defense, ruling that wrapping a commercial baby sale in religious language doesn’t make it legal.
Delivering a scathing judgment, Justice Galadima stressed that legal adoption requires rigorous welfare checks, formal court orders, and strict state approval — none of which took place.
He ruled:
”The Trafficking in Persons Act criminalises the recruitment, transfer, receipt, transportation, harbouring and procurement of children for unlawful purposes. The accused cannot avoid criminal liability by describing the transaction as an adoption when the surrounding circumstances established an unlawful commercial transfer.”
Justice Served
Justice Galadima found Nwachukwu guilty of child trafficking under Section 13 of Nigeria’s Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act.
She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay a ₦250,000 fine (minus one month already served in custody while awaiting bail).
In a final humiliation for the disgraced preacher, the judge ordered her full name and photograph to be permanently etched into the National Trafficking Offenders Register.
She will also be placed under strict state surveillance and correctional monitoring immediately upon her release from prison to ensure she never targets vulnerable children again.