A 20-year-old woman arrested by the police for selling her newborn for ₦130,000 to suspected traffickers yesterday said the money she took was for her upkeep and that she gave the child away because it would have died of hunger in her care.
The suspect identified as Miracle Kalu was trailed to Imo State by the police in Lagos after operatives on pin-down patrol on April 26 intercepted a couple with a month-old baby.
Policemen attached to Anthony Division around 2am that day while manning a roadblock at Anthony Oke, intercepted a Toyota Sienna bus carrying seven passengers including one Patrick Mbama, 41, and Ogechi Chinonso Ekwebele, 30, carrying the baby.
While all the occupants were held for violating the ban on inter-state travels, the police team discovered suspicious movements between the couple carrying the baby which prompted further probing.
It was gathered that the suspects upon interrogation, said they were coming from Orlu in Imo State and were in Lagos to deliver the baby to a childless couple.
Ekwebele was said to have had a birth certificate which indicated the child was born on March 23 and the parent’s names indicated as Izuchukwu Okafor, 51, and his wife Cecilia, 40, who turned out to be the childless couple in need of a baby.
The Okafors were subsequently arrested and detained alongside the other two as the police continued investigation to locate the child’s parents to be sure the baby was not stolen.
Kalu was eventually located in Imo and brought to Lagos where she admitted to have given up the child out of desperation.
At the command headquarters on Monday, the woman told reporters, “I can barely feed, so when I discovered I was pregnant I wanted to abort it when a man advised me to keep the baby and give it to a family that can care for it after delivery. He said he knew of a barren family in Lagos that can take care of me until I am delivered of the child.
“Truly, they were taking care of the pregnancy and when I was delivered of the baby, I was given ₦130,000 which I used to buy drugs and other things to take care of myself. It is not as if I sold the child.”
Mrs. Okafor said, “All I wanted was to experience motherhood. I wanted to train and nurture the child since I have not been able to have one in 15 years. I did not go through legal adoption because I do not know how it is done,” she said.
Police Commissioner Hakeem Odumosu said they would be charged to court.
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