Men of the Oyo State Police Command have arrested an elderly man identified as Monday Chukwuka for allegedly selling his one-day-old grandchild for N700,000.
The State Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, in a statement on Saturday, said the grandfather was arrested at his hideout in the Ibafo area of Ogun State following credible intelligence.
According to Osifeso, the suspect, who is the biological father of a young girl who gave birth to the child that was sold, had confessed to his crime.
Chukwuka was said to have taken the baby from his daughter after she had delivered the child, under the pretense of handing the child over to someone who would look after her.
The Police revealed that a bundle of new birth certificates and some equipment being used for baby deliveries were recovered from the factory, adding that the suspects, as of the time of arrest, were unable to give any satisfactory explanation about the parentage of the babies recovered from the factory.
The senior citizen also reported confessed that he sold the baby because he could not afford to take care of his teenage daughter and the child, so he used the proceeds to rent a shop and buy goods.
Another suspect, Favour Chukwuka, who bought the baby from the grandfather, claimed another couple currently at large gave her the job to look for a baby because of their childlessness, pocketed N50,000 and handed over N650,000 to him (Monday).
The statement read in part: “Osifeso said: “On July 10, 2023, an actionable intelligence report was received by a team of Police operatives attached to the Command Monitoring, Oyo State, about the ‘harvesting of a day-old baby girl’ from her teenage mother, identified as Sarah Chukwuka, in Oyo town and the sale of the girl-child to a criminal cartel that operates a baby factory in Abia State.
“The suspect further explained in detail how he moved the day-old baby to Abia State, where he sold her to the owner of a baby factory located at Obehi, Okwa West, in Abia State for N700,000.
“Investigation was extended to Abia State, and in the process of a coordinated raid on the baby factory, a female suspect identified as Popoola Bunmi and four other accomplices, whose names are Chinwedu Peter, Chidinma Blessing, Chuckwu Christopher, and Favour Chukwu, were all apprehended in connection with the criminal activity.”