The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a 33-year-old woman, identified as Olaide Adekunle, for allegedly selling her 18-month-old baby for N600,000 to offset her bank loan.
OsunDaily News reports that the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed the latest development in a statement on Monday.
According to him, the suspect, who lives in Sango, the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, left her house for Lagos where she sold the baby to an unknown buyer.
He said Olaide was arrested following a complaint lodged at Sango divisional headquarters by her husband, Nureni Rasaq, stressing that his wife left home for Lagos on March 15, 2023, with their baby girl, Moridiat Rasaq, but returned home without the baby.
According to Oyeyemi, 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 whereabouts of the baby.
The police boss added that the suspect has confessed to the crime and the acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Babakura Muhammed, had directed that the suspect be transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and possible recovery of the baby.
He said, “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 had sold the baby to someone in Lagos at the rate of N600,000.
“When asked the reason for her action, she stated that she borrowed money from a microfinance bank, and when she was unable to pay back the money, the bank agents started dragging her and threatened to deal decisively with her.
“It was consequent 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 child in Lagos.”
