Lenient judgement for mother who tried to sell twins in Katsina

FILE: Judge Nuradeen El-Laden says the woman tried to sell her twins because of abject poverty

A woman who tried to sell her one-month-old twin babies has been sentenced to 10 months in prison, but can avoid jail time if she pays a court-ordered fine of 10,000 naira ($27; £20).

She was arrested last month in Katsina, northern Nigeria, after attempting to sell the children for 350,000 naira ($973; £718).

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Judge Nuradeen El-Laden said he chose not to give the woman a heavy sentence over fears for the babies’ health, Punch reports.

The news site also says the judge was lenient because he understood the mother’s attempt to sell her children to be a result of “abject poverty”, adding that she had shown remorse for her actions.

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Young women in Nigeria often trade their babies for money, sometimes for as low as $30.

The matter became so serious that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, NAPTIP, raised an alarm on the increasing cases of Nigerian medical personnel, parents and illegal children homes selling babies.