Court remands mother charged with attempted sale of twins

A 30-year-old woman, Salima Lawal, who was arraigned for allegedly attempting to sell her one-month-old twins for N350,000, has been remanded in the prison custody.

The remand order was made on Tuesday by a Katsina State Senior Magistrates’ Court.

Lawal, who hails Marabar Kankara town in the Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State, had been arraigned on Monday by the police.

The charges against her border on buying and selling of minors, an offence the police said was contrary to Section 278 of the Penal Code.

At the Tuesday’s proceedings, the presiding senior magistrate, Nuradeen El-Laden, however, drew the prosecutor’s attention to some flaws in the First Information Report filed by the police in the case.

The prosecutor, ASP Ashimu Musa, told the magistrate that investigation had yet to be concluded in the case.

He said the outcome of investigation would determine the final charges that the police would file against the suspect.

Musa pleaded for an adjournment to enable the police to complete their investigation.

He also pleaded with the court to take judicial notice of Lawal’s condition as a nursing mother.

The magistrate, El-Laden, adjourned the case till December 20, 2017, and directed that Lawal should be remanded in the prison custody.

The police had arrested Lawal for allegedly attempting to sell her one-month-old female twins to “a good Samaritan” at Ruwan Godiya village in the Faskari Local Government Area of the state on December 2.