She was said to have taken the ‘stolen child’ from Onitsha in Anambra State for ‘delivery’ to the buyer on Lagos Island.
Police chief Fatai Owoseni said yesterday that the suspect’s interrogation led to the arrest of three other suspects, Ogechi Njoku, Patience Nwaogbo Ego and Ngozi Izuora.
Owoseni said the suspects told the police that the would-be receiver had already paid N1, 010,000 for the baby. Their collaborator, who is based in Anambra State, he said, is on the run.
Ms Obi, mother of four, said she was not aware that the child was stolen.
She said: “What happened was that my sister, though not my biological sister, who I used to help to sell clothes in Onitsha, told me I will be going to Lagos one morning. She chartered a bus and asked me to take a baby to a woman in Lagos. I did not know the woman but she gave me her phone number and told me to call her on phone when I reached Oshodi in Lagos.
“When I reached Oshodi, the driver of the bus who had been suspecting me based on the fact that the baby had been crying and I was unable to calm him down, drove straight to Makinde Police Division where I was arrested. Upon interrogation, I told them that I was the mother of the child and that the father who had impregnated me out of wedlock had run away. But after much questioning, I had to tell the truth. I confessed and told the police that my sister at Onitsha gave me the child to send to the buyer whose name was given as Mrs Ogechi. They said Mrs Ogechi has two girls and was said to be looking for a male child which she could not have. So she decided to buy one.
“Sincerely I have been rather unfortunate in life. I am an orphan who was given into marriage at age 16. I married Mr Paulicap Eze who had a wife and a female child. The idea behind the marriage was to give him more children particularly a male child since his wife could not produce after many years of waiting. I gave him four children but last year, we had a misunderstanding and I was sent packing living behind three of my children. The fourth child, who is two, was with me until two months ago when my husband came to take him from me.”
