A woman, Chinyere Nwosu, found with a two-week-old baby boy and discovered not to be his mother, said that she decided to pay N500,000 to a prostitute to care for a baby she wanted to get rid of even at seven months or abandon at birth because the baby was unexpected and unwanted.
She said she felt for the baby before he was born as her husband left her after 26 years of marriage when she could not have a child.
The 53-year-old woman, who said she had reached menopause stated that she decided to take care of the baby when her friend informed her of the situation, rather than allow the baby to die because he was unwanted.
Detectives in Ogun State Police Command arrested Nwosu a week ago for allegedly stealing the baby boy after she was seen with him.
People had been suspicious when they noticed the baby was crying but the suspect did not put him to breast for feeding as a mother.
The police spokesman in the command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who spoke on the arrest, said that the suspicion made members of the public to raise the alarm and also alert the police at Sango Ota divisional headquarters.
He said that the Divisional Police Officer, Sango Ota, SP Dahiru Saleh, had to send his detectives to the scene to prevent the lynching of the woman, while she was promptly arrested.
DSP Oyeyemi said that when she was interrogated, Ms Nwosu confessed that she was not the biological mother of the child but that she paid N500,000 to have him through one Ngozi Akaene at Agege area of Lagos State.
The confession, he added, led to the arrest of Mrs Akaene who said that she helped the first suspect to negotiate with the biological mother of the baby who agreed to sell the baby.
He stated further that efforts to locate the biological mother of the baby had proved unsuccessful, while the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had directed the suspects to be transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and possible prosecution.
In an interview, Ms Nwosu, from Anambra State, but residing in Lagos, said that the biological mother was discovered by her friend, Mrs Akaene, who was a preacher, when she was heavily pregnant and planning to get rid of the baby.
“The lady was a prostitute who was discovered by my friend where she used to smoke weed and drink alcohol heavily and sleep on the streets.
“One day, as my friend went to preach, the lady told her she had been drinking and taking drugs to get rid of the baby she was carrying but all to no avail. She said that she would abandon the baby after delivery. That was when my friend told her that it was better to hand over the child to someone who needs a child and can care for the baby.
“She tried to put her up with someone to live with but she refused. She kept sleeping on the street but my friend was taking care of her feeding and the maternity home she was taken to.
“The lady expressed her desire to go back into sale of sandals which she said she was engaged in before going into prostitution. So I paid N500,000 to take care of her feeding, child delivery and the start of her business.
“The baby was delivered and given to me. I took him to my sister’s house at Sango Area in Ogun State to take care of him. Trouble started the day I went to buy diapers for the baby and the price given by a trader was high, so I went to another woman.
“As I came out with the purchase, the woman was unhappy and asked if I was the baby’s mother and I said yes. That was how she started shouting, calling me a child abductor. People descended on me, stripped me of my clothes and started beating me, after which the police were called.”
In her own explanation, Mrs Akaene, aged 45, said that she came across the lady during evangelism and she told her of her abortive attempt to get rid of her pregnancy.
“I advised her against it and she asked if I could take care of the baby after her delivery. I responded that I could not since I have two children, but could help her get a woman who desired to have a child she could take care of.
“The money paid by Ms Nwosu was used to pay for the feeding of the lady till delivery, the delivery fee at the maternity home and the sandals she said she wanted to be selling. She also bought things for the baby and clothes for herself. She also collected N250,000 to rent an apartment.
“God knows I was only doing His work. I didn’t make any gain from the money,” Mrs Akaene said.
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