A teenage girl who allegedly sold her three-months-old baby to a child trafficker for N250,000 has been arrested by operatives attached to the Abia State Police Command in Umuahia.
A statement from the command quoted the state Commissioner of Police, CP Adeleye Oyebade as saying that the baby was rescued by operatives attached to the state Anti-Kidnapping Unit on May 19, 2017, following a tip-off, and has reunited the baby with its mother at the command headquarters in Umuahia. CP Oyebade said that the baby girl was recovered while the detectives were investigating the activities of some suspected child traffickers in the state following the information received from one of their victims. “One Esther Asukwo was arrested in the course of the investigation for keeping two pregnant teenagers, identified as Abigail Udofia and Ezinne Obiah, and selling their babies after birth,” CP Oyebade4 said while briefing newsmen.
A senior police officer who also commented on the incident revealed that the mother of the teenager whose baby was recovered had connived with the baby’s mother to sell the child to a suspected child trafficker who resided at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, before the trade was foiled by the police. Udofia and Obiah have already confessed that both of them were introduced to Asukwo while they were pregnant, adding that they were paid N250,000 each after selling their babies when they put to bed.
Asukwo also confessed that she kept the two teenagers and helped them to deliver their babies when they were due for delivery before they were sold off to the traffickers who sold them to a woman who is now on the run.
