The Delta State Police Command has arrested two women in connection with a child-stealing syndicate, rescuing a three-day-old baby in the process.
On Independence Day, October 1, 2024, a tricycle rider, whose identity was withheld, reported suspicious activity to the police.
According to him, four women boarded his tricycle, and when two alighted at the Effurun roundabout, one handed over a newborn baby to the other two women left in the tricycle.
He overheard one of the women saying, “The balance has been paid,” instructing the others to inform her upon reaching their destination.
Sensing foul play, the tricycle rider diverted the remaining two women, later identified as Tessi Ikechukwu and Lauretta Akomen, to the Ekpan Police Station.
Police investigations revealed that Akomen, 38, had purchased the baby for ₦2 million from a traditional home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where teenage girls are kept and impregnated by men, after which the babies are sold to individuals desperate for children.
Akomen confessed that she had been given a drug that made her appear pregnant to carry out the scheme.
She later led the police to the residence of one Gloria, who acted as an intermediary between her and the traditional home.
Both women are currently in police custody, while a manhunt for other accomplices continues.
Reacting to the incident, Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Olufemi Abaniwonda, commended the tricycle rider “for his vigilance and patriotic act,” urging the public to emulate him.
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