The Plateau State Police Command has announced the arrest of a 38-year old woman in Jos, the state capital for allegedly selling her 8-month old granddaughter.
According to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Chris Olakpe, who briefed newsmen, the principal suspect, Mrs Kate Anwacha, cunningly sent her daughter, Blessing Godspower, on errand and thereafter, sold her baby to one Chiamaka Obinna, a waiting buyer at the sum of N200, 000.
The state Commissioner of Police, said the first receiver of the baby sold the baby to one Rita Madubuko, at Akwa in Anambra State at the rate of N33, 000, while the second receiver also sold the baby to the final buyer, one Grace Nnadozi, at the sum of N500, 000.
Mr Olakpe said the trafficked baby, Chiamaka, aged eight months old, was later recovered on July 24 at Akwa, Anambra State, through intelligence of the a detective of ‘A’ Division of the Plateau State police command.
Blessing, a 17-year old who had been impregnated by her boyfriend, said, “My mother sent me on an errand, but when I came back I asked for my baby and my mother asked, ‘which baby?’ She feigned ignorance and at that point I started crying and reported the incident to the Police.”
A source close to the family in Jos, disclosed that after frantic search for the baby, both within their premises at Rukuba Road in Jos North Local Government Area and the neighbourhood, the mother of the baby, Blessing Godspower, reported to the police.
It was learnt that the police then invited the mother, Kate and other living the premises, while the Kate later confessed in the course of the interrogation that she sold the baby out.
The purchaser of the baby, Nnadozie, however, told our correspondent that after she applied to an orphanage home for a child without any result for the past two years, she sought Anyaegbu’s help.
She said she gave N500,000 to Anyaegbu for the baby. Anyaegbu gave N350, 000 to Maduako. Maduako was to give N200,000 to the baby’s grandmother.
But Nwabueze denied that she sold her granddaughter. She said her daughter was very wayward, so she decided to give the baby out to somebody else who would take proper care of her.
She said, “How can I sell my granddaughter? My daughter is not capable of taking care of the baby and I decided to give her to somebody who will take proper care of her.”
Nwabueze explained that she lost her husband in 2007 and since then, she and the six children she had with him, had been finding things difficult.
In a similar case, a couple in Imo State has been arrested by the Imo State Police Command for allegedly conspiring with another person to sell their four-month old baby.
Prince Sunday Okorie and his wife, Sarah, of Umuokpo Ntu, Ngor Okpala, were said to have met a woman believed to be a child trafficker of Favour Hospital and Maternity, Awo-omamma, who had the male baby in her custody before they could reach the buyer.
They had offered to sell the baby for N500, 000.
According to the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer (DPPRO) Elvis Abanga, who briefed newsmen, they succeeded to get one Ebere Ngozi Gloria Akalite, of Awada Onitsha, Anambra State, who paid the price.
The DPPRO told the newsmen that the parents of the baby claimed that they only collected N300,000 from the deal.
Mr Abanga explained that the medical director, who employed one Ogechi Ahanna, who attracted the buyer, gave the child’s parents only N300,000, claiming that was the amount she sold the baby boy.
He pointed that all the suspects involved in the matter had been arrested and would soon be arraigned before the court after investigation on the case by the police.