A 33-year-old woman, Olaide Adekunle, is cooling her feet in police net for allegedly selling her 18-month-old baby for the sum of N600,000.
The woman was arrested by operatives of the Ogun State Police Command, having allegedly sold her baby to a yet-to-be identified buyer.
Upon her arrest, she was said to have claimed that she defaulted on a loan she took from a micro-finance bank.
Consequently, she ran away from home to Lagos where she was selling satchet water before she eventually met the buyer of her 18-month-old baby.
The Ogun Police Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, stated this in a release, AZ:5310/OGS/PRO/VOL.7/211.
17/04/2023.
As contained in the release, the suspect was arrested following a complain lodged at the Sango Divisional Police Headquarters by the woman’s husband, one Nureni Rasaq.
The husband was said to have reported that his wife, Olaide Adekunle, left home to Lagos on 15 March, 2023 with their baby girl, by name Moridiat Rasaq, but returned home without the baby.
The husband stated further that all efforts to know what happened to the baby proved abortive as the woman was unable to give any reasonable account of the whereabout of the said baby.
“Upon the report, the DPO Sango Division, CSP Dahiru Saleh, detailed his detectives to go after the said woman, and she was promptly arrested.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed that she has sold the baby to someone in Lagos at the rate of Six Hundred Thousand Naira (#600,000) only.
“When asked the reason for her action, she stated that she borrowed money from a microfinance bank.
“She said when she was unable to pay back the money, the bank agents started dragging her and threatening to deal decisively with her.
“She added that it was consequence upon this that she ran to Lagos and started hawking sachet water.
“It was while hawking that she met a man who introduced her to the woman that eventually bought the baby in Lagos,” Oyeyemi stated in the release.
Meanwhile, the acting Commissioner of Police in the state, DCP Babakura Muhammed, has directed that the suspect be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
The directive, SP Oyeyemi stated, is for further investigation and possible recovery of the baby.
