The spokesman for Ebonyi State Police Command, Chris Anyanwu, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The Nigeria Police Force says it arrested two lovers for selling their baby to a maternity home operator for N500,000 in Ebonyi State.
The spokesman for Ebonyi State Police Command, Chris Anyanwu, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abakaliki, the state capital.
Anyanwu gave the name of the suspects as Ola China, the 20-year-old mother of the baby boy and her lover Jonah Ogbuagu, a bricklayer.
The police said China, who hails from Amangwu Edda in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi was impregnated out of wedlock by Ogbuagu in August 2021.
"Because of stigma, she went to hibernate at her aunt’s residence in Obigbo, Rivers State during the pregnancy.
"In April 2022, she gave birth to a baby and thereafter, conspired with Ogbuagu and sold the baby to a maternity home where she gave birth," the police spokesperson said.
Anyanwu said the command also arrested the maternity homeowner, popularly known as “Mummy Abigail’’ at Ovima in the Afikpo Local Government Area of the state.
He said, “Mummy Abigail runs a maternity home which she uses as a cover for her illicit trade.
“The suspects have been handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for necessary actions and prosecution."
In another development, the Command said it also arrested a two-man syndicate of child traffickers.
The spokesman said that suspects whom he gave their names as Otuu Chizaram, 24, from Ndukwe Akpoha and Agbi Precious, 20, of Evuma Road both in the Afikpo North Council area, specialise in "stealing, abducting, kidnapping and selling of children".
The police spokesman said the suspects have confessed to the crime.