A 23-year-old woman named Mary Olatayo was apprehended by Ogun State Police Command agents for selling her three-week-old child for $600,000.
In a statement released Thursday, the Command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the woman’s arrest.
Olatayo was detained on August 18, 2022, claims Oyeyemi.
This was in response to a complaint from the baby’s father. He complained to the Mowe Divisional Police Headquarters that Olatayo became pregnant after he started dating her and that he rented an apartment for her, where she remained until giving birth to a baby boy.
He complained further that the lady suddenly disappeared with the baby from the apartment three weeks after delivery, only to be found in a hotel, where she allegedly went for a “hookup” with another man.
He said all efforts to know where the baby was proved futile.
On the strength of his complaint, the Divisional Police Officer of Mowe division, SP Folake Afeniforo, detailed detectives to the scene, where the suspect was arrested and brought to the station.
On interrogation, Olatayo confessed to the Police that she had sold the baby to someone in Anambra State for ₦600,000.
She confessed that her friend, Chioma Esther Ogbonna, led her to the buyer in Anambra State and that they shared the money equally.
Her confession led to the arrest of Ogbonna, who also corroborated Olatayo’s claims.
Further investigation, Oyeyemi said, revealed that Olatayo, a native of Omu-Aran in Kwara State, is a call girl who sees the baby as a disturbance to her business. Hence she decided to do away with the baby.
The Command’s Commissioner, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
The CP also directed that everything possible must be done to recover the baby.