The police in Ogun State have arrested a 33-year-old mother, Olaide Adekunle, who allegedly sold her 18-month-old baby for N600,000 to pay off a loan she obtained from a microfinance bank.
The buyer, now at large, was said to have bought the baby in Lagos.
The police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi told newsmen in Abeokuta on Monday that the 33-year-old mother suspect was arrested following a report at Sango divisional headquarters by her husband, one Nureni Rasaq.
Oyeyemi quoted the husband to have reported that the wife left home for Lagos in March with their baby girl, Moridiat Rasaq, but she returned home without the baby.
According to him, 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 baby’s whereabouts.
Oyeyemi said the DPO Sango division, Dahiru Saleh, immediately detailed his detectives to arrest the suspect.
He said during the interrogation, the 33-year-old mother suspect confessed to have sold the baby for N600,000.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed that she has sold the baby to someone in Lagos at the rate of six hundred thousand naira (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 threatening to deal decisively with her. 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 child in Lagos,” Oyeyemi quoted the suspect to have said.
He said the acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Babakura Muhammed, had directed that the suspect be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and possible recovery of the baby.