The police in Oyo State have arrested a 60-year-old woman, Asabi Adebayo, for allegedly buying five babies at N5million from a ‘child dealer’ in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
The suspect, who said she hailed from Lagos State, is a U.S returnee and revealed how she planned to fly the babies abroad for sale, but first brought them to an orphanage in Ibadan, Oyo state capital, to obtain a certified police report for them before she was exposed, Tribune reports.
Parading the suspected child trafficker, the babies alongside other suspects on Thursday at the Eleyele Police Headquarters, the Commissioner of Police, CP, Leye Oyebade, said the woman would have escaped if not for the patriotic effort of the officials of the orphanage who according to him reported the matter at the Iyaganku Police Station.
Oyebade said the police officers who accompanied the suspect to Port-Harcourt where she claimed to have bought the babies have not been able to apprehend the sellers, however, the babies have been taken to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Child Welfare.
“The suspect is assisting the police in their investigation,” the CP said, adding that the ages of the babies, (two boys and three girls) range from two years, eight months, seven months, six months and four months.
Confirming the activities of the woman, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Iyaganku area of the state, Mr. Ojopagogo, told journalists that, “A woman, who operates an orphanage came to our station last Thursday and reported to us that a 60-year-old woman came to them that she had five children and that she needed police report for the children to be flown abroad.
“Our detectives, led by a Superintendent of Police, SP, from the Juvenile Welfare Section, went to arrest the suspect.
“The suspect, after her arrest, told us that she got the children for N5million and that she bought the children from a woman in Port-Harcourt.
“We travelled with the suspect to Port-Harcourt; but unfortunately we have not been able to track the seller,” the DPO added, noting that investigations were ongoing.
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