A 33-year-old woman, Olaide Adekunle, has reportedly sold her 18-month-old baby for N600,000 to offset her bank loan.
The suspect, who purportedly hails from Sango in Ogun State’s Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, reportedly left her home for Lagos, where she sold the infant to an unnamed bidder.
Following a complaint made by the suspect’s husband, Nureni Rasaq, at the Sango divisional headquarters and men from the Ogun State Police Command detained the suspect.
This was revealed in a statement on Monday by SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, the state’s police public relations officer.
The PPRO further stated that the husband claimed his wife had departed for Lagos with their infant daughter, Moridiat Rasaq, on March 15, 2023, but had since returned without the child.
According to Oyeyemi, the husband stated further that all efforts to know what happened to the baby proved abortive as the woman was unable to give any reasonable account of the whereabouts of the said baby.
He said, “Upon the report, the DPO Sango division, CSP Dahiru Saleh, detailed his detectives to go after the said woman, and she was promptly arrested.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed that she had sold the baby to someone in Lagos at the rate of N600,000.
“When asked the reason for her action, she stated that she borrowed money from a microfinance bank, and when she was unable to pay back the money, the bank agents started dragging her and threatened to deal decisively with her.
“It was consequent upon this that she ran to Lagos and started hawking sachet water.
“It was while hawking that she met a man who introduced her to the woman that eventually bought the child in Lagos.”
The PPRO, however, said the acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Babakura Muhammed, had directed that the suspect be transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and possible recovery of the baby.
