Anthony Iwuoma
Police operatives from the Nasarawa State Police Command have nabbed 35-year-old woman for alleged child theft and attempting to sell the baby.
The suspect, one Rifkatu Haruna, allegedly stole a three-year-old male child in the state.
She was on Wednesday paraded with 18 other suspects in Lafia, by the state Commissioner of Police, Adesina Soyemi.
The police boss disclosed that Haruna, who had been on the wanted list of the police, was arrested in Garaku, Kokona Local Government Area of the state, following a tip-off.
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Speaking further, Soyemi said investigations had shown that the woman allegedly collaborated with other suspects and stole the baby from Garaku town and planned to sell him to a prophetess in Enugu State.
He said: “The traffickers took the child to Enugu State, but could not sell him, so they brought him back. The suspect ran out of luck and was arrested; other accomplices are still on the run.
“We are now trailing the other suspects and I promise to do everything within the law to ensure that they are apprehended no matter their status in the society.”
Child theft is becoming increasingly rampant in Nigeria.
Only last month, four persons were brought before a Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for allegedly abducting and selling a baby for N500,000.
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According to charges filed in court, the quartet abducted a one year and ten months old baby on April 14, 2020 at Umuojiohi community in Afara clan in Etche Local Council and subsequently sold the baby at the sum of N500,000.
Few weeks before the arraignment of the Port Harcourt suspects, two top government officials in the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs had been arrested for allegedly stealing and selling a baby.
The child belonged to a mentally challenged woman in the state.
It was handed over to the two government officials by MM Catholic Hospital in Ondo town after its mother was assisted by good Samaritans, following the delivery of the child on the street.
However, the suspects reportedly sold the baby for N1 million to a woman who had applied for adoption of a baby.