A 33-year-old woman, Olaide Adekunle has reportedly sold her 18-month-old baby for N600,000 to offset her bank loan.
The suspect, who lives in Sango in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State reportedly left her house for Lagos where she sold the baby to a yet-to-be-identified buyer.
The suspect was arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command following a complaint lodged at Sango divisional headquarters by the woman’s husband, Nureni Rasaq.
In a statement on Monday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Superintendent Abimbola Oyeyemi said that the husband reported that his wife left home for Lagos on 15th March 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 said 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”.
The PPRO, however, said 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.
