Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have nabbed a 23-year-old lady, Mary Olatayo, for selling her three weeks old baby for N600,000.
The spokesman of the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the arrest of the lady in a statement issued on Thursday.
According to Oyeyemi, Olatayo was arrested on August 18, 2022.
This followed a complaint from the father of the baby, who reported at Mowe Divisional Police Headquarters that after he started dating Olatayo, she got pregnant in the process, adding that he rented an apartment for her, where she lived till she delivered of a baby boy.
He complained further that the lady suddenly disappeared with the baby from the apartment three weeks after delivery, only for her to be found in an hotel, where she allegedly went for a “hookup” with another man.
He said all efforts to know where the baby was proved futile.
On the strength of his complaint, the Divisional Police Officer of Mowe division, SP Folake Afeniforo, detailed detectives to the scene, where the suspect was arrested and brought to the station.
On interrogation, Olatayo confessed to the Police that she has sold the baby to someone in Anambra State for N600,000.
She confessed that it was her friend, Chioma Esther Ogbonna, who led her to the buyer in Anambra State and that they both shared the money equally.
Her confession led to the arrest of Ogbonna, who also corroborated Olatayo’s claims.
Further investigation, Oyeyemi said, revealed that Olatayo, a native of Omu-Aran in Kwara State, is a call girl, who sees the baby as a disturbance to her business, hence she decided to do away with the baby.
The Command’s Commissioner, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
The CP also directed that everything possible must be done to recover the baby.
