Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of the Lagos Police Command, have arrested a lady, Miss Onyinyechi Osoneye, 22, along with six other suspects over the sale of a day old baby for N850,000.
Confirming the arrest, Commander of RRS, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, said that Onyinyechi was arrested last Wednesday based on information over the sale of her baby to Mr. and Mrs. Ike Nwata.
Onyinyechi allegedly connived with her mother, Mrs. Joy Osoneye, to conceal the pregnancy from her father, because of his strict position on having a child out of wedlock.
It was gathered that Onyinyechi was admitted at Peninsula Hospital, Ikota, on Lekki-Ajah Expressway, where one Mrs. Glory Ehinmi, 35, delivered her of a baby boy on March 1.
The source further disclosed that Onyinyechi, when arrested, denied that she was ever pregnant.
She later burst into tears and confessed that Mrs Ehinmi took the baby from her after delivery and gave him to Mrs. Prisca Okocha, 45, her sister and owner of a hospital in Orile, who offered Onyinyechi’s mother N250,000.
Mrs Okocha contacted Mrs. Regina Anyanwu, 59, who brought the buyers, Mrs Nwata. Okocha later confessed to investigators that she sold the baby for N850,000, but gave the mother N250,000.
The Nwatas, who were in need of a child, had organised a huge party to celebrate the baby’s arrival. Mrs Nwata was reported to have stayed away from her husband’s residence, while the search for a baby lasted.
She would then pretend to be pregnant each time she went to the husband’s house. Mrs Ehinmi, during interrogation, confessed that she enrolled Onyinyechi for antenatal and fed her till she was delivered of the baby.
Meanwhile, the baby is with Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs, while investigations continue.