Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
A woman simply identified as Ifeoma residing at Umuezu, Ndegwu in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State was on Thursday arrested by the police for allegedly selling her day-old baby boy at the sum of N30,000.
It was learnt that her neighbours who were aware of her pregnancy became suspicious after she came back home on Wednesday night without carrying a baby even as her stomach showed that she had given birth.
One of her neighbours, who do not want her name mentioned, said “we all know Ifeoma was due to have her baby, because her stomach has become very big. But when she left in the morning and returned at night and her big stomach had gone down, we thought she had given birth but we did not see her baby.”
The neighbour further said: “when we asked her, she said her baby was still at the hospital, that she came to collect something, but when she did not go back to the hospital that night, we started suspecting her.”
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Another witness, John Chikezie , added that he saw Ifeoma and asked about her baby, she told him the same thing that her baby was in the hospital. When Chikezie and another witness, Ukachukwu Ahaneku accosted the woman in her house at about 2:00pm on Thursday, they saw her hurriedly packing her things . After confirming their suspicion , they alerted other neighbours who invited the police from Ogbaku division who came and whisked her away.
But before she left for the station, the woman had allegedly confessed that she gave her day old child to a relation residing at World bank, Owerri who gave her a part payment of N30, 000 . According to her confession, the new parents have longed to have a baby boy of their own to no avail until they entered the agreement with Ifeoma.
Ifeoma, according to her neighbours had four children already for her late husband, before abandoning his home to leave with another man who also ran away last year, leaving her to cater for her four children alone.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Enwerem who confirmed the incident to our correspondent , however noted that the command has begun investigation into the matter.