Police arrest girl, 4 others for selling baby in Lagos
A 20-year-old girl, Miracle Kalu, who allegedly got pregnant out of wedlock, delivered and sold her baby for N130,000, has been arrested alongside four of her accomplices.
Kalu, who hails from Ohafia in Abia state, said the lack of funds to take care of her health condition and fend for the baby forced her into selling the 28-day-old baby to Cecilia Okafor (40) after birth.
Narrating how her ordeal started, Kalu who is based in Imo state, said after she got pregnant, her lover denied been responsible for the pregnancy.
The bubble about the sale of the baby burst when two of her accomplices, Patrick Mbama (41) and Ogechi Ekwebele (30) were arrested at Anthony area of Lagos, while returning from Imo state, after smuggling the baby to Lagos.
Parading the suspects on Monday at the Lagos state Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, revealed that Mbama and Ekwebele had pretended to be a couple when they were arrested.
Odumosu revealed that the said couple were intercepted in aToyota Sienna vehicle carrying seven passengers.
He said the baby was crying in the vehicle and the supposed mother of the child, Ekwebele was advised to breastfeed the baby.
The Lagos police boss said the hesitation of Ekwebele to breastfeed her baby raised other passengers’ suspicion.
Odumosu said: “On April 26 at 2am, police officers from Anthony Division, intercepted a Toyota Sienna SUV carrying seven passengers and among them were, Patrick Mbama, and Ogechi Ekwebele, traveling together with a baby of about a month old, suspected to be stolen.
“They were coming from Orlu, Imo state. All the occupants of the vehicle were arrested for violating the ban on inter-state travel and the vehicle was impounded.
“Upon questioning, this particular childless couple claimed that a childless man and wife in Lagos had paid for the said baby. The childless couple, Izuchukwu Okafor (51) and Cecilia Okafor (40), who ordered for the baby were arrested.
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“The name of the child’s parent as contained in the birth certificate recovered is that of the buyers. The baby’s date of birth was dated March 23. The biological parents of the baby were traced.
“The baby is at the social welfare department of the Lagos state government and if the biological mother wants the baby back, she may have to apply.”
Kalu, who spoke to journalists, said she was an orphan and a secondary school drop-out.
In her confessional statement, she said: “When I got pregnant, my boyfriend whose house I do not know, abandoned me. He denied the pregnancy, saying he was not responsible for it.
“Since I was leaving with my elder sister who is also struggling, I had to live the house and look for a means of survival. I agreed to give birth to the baby at God’s Own Maternity in Imo state and sell the baby afterwards.”
Asked how she spent the N130, 000, she was paid, Kalu said: “I bought drugs, and took care of my health because I have ulcer.”
On her part, Okafor, said it was the quest to have a child of her own that forced her into buying the baby.
However, a police source on condition of anonymity, disclosed that Kalu is notorious for selling her children, as it was not her first time of giving birth and selling her baby.
