A 20-Year-old woman was arrested by the police for selling her newborn for N130,000 to suspected traffickers on Monday 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 .
