Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu.
By Evelyn Usman
A couple has been arrested in Lagos for allegedly stealing a one-month-old baby from the eastern part of the country.
The suspects, a male and a female who claimed to be a couple, were arrested at 2a.m. on Sunday, while sneaking the baby into Lagos.
Another couple, who had paid N150,000 for the baby, was waiting in Lagos to take possession of the newborn. They were equally arrested.
On how the couple that stole the month-old baby was caught, a source said policemen from Anthony Division, led by the Divisional Police Officer, SP Patricia Amadin, intercepted a Sienna bus with seven passengers on Anthony Bridge.
The officers were enforcing the lockdown directive aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.
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The police sources explained that “the police discovered that among the passengers in the Sienna bus was a young man and a woman travelling with a baby, later discovered to be a month old.
“They claimed they had travelled all through the night from Orlu, in Imo State, to Lagos.
“Seeing that none of them was exempted from the presidential lockdown order, all occupants of the vehicle were immediately arrested and taken to the station.
“On interrogation, the young man and woman with the baby claimed that a childless couple in Lagos paid N150,000 for the said baby and that they were the courier being used to deliver the baby.
“However, the facts of their testimonies were distorted and inconsistent. The police suspected that the baby was stolen.
“At about 2.45a.m. the same day, the couple that paid for the baby came to the station in an attempt to retrieve the baby. They were also arrested.”
The birth certificate of the baby recovered from the couple, as gathered, revealed she was born on March 23, 2020, outside Lagos, with names of the receiving couple filled in as the baby’s parents.
But the supposed parents were said to have failed to give corresponding answers to how and where the baby was born.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Elkana Bala, who confirmed the arrest, said the baby was subsequently taken from the couples.
He added that investigation had begun, noting that the couples that stole the baby were in police custody.
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