A middle-aged woman, Falilat Olatunji, was on Wednesday, arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly stealing a four-month-old baby boy, to cover up her fake pregnancy.
Falilat, who was arrested 24 hours after she allegedly stole the baby from a room at Iyana-Kajola, Mile 2, Abeokuta, was said to have deceived her husband that she was pregnant.
The mother of the baby, Taiwo Bello, was reported to have left the sleeping boy in the room and went to the back of the house to wash clothes, Punch reports.
She was shocked when she entered the room to check on her baby and discovered that he was nowhere to be found.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident in a statement on Thursday.
Oyeyemi said the suspect was arrested following a report by one Alhaji Abdulakeem Dawodu at the Sabo Ilupeju Police Station.
The PPRO added that Dawodu explained that the mother of the missing baby raised the alarm, which attracted a lot of people to the house, and that up until the time of the report, the baby had yet to be found.
Oyeyemi stated, “Upon the report, the DPO, Sabo Ilupeju Division, CSP Alhasan AbdulAzeez, mobilised his detectives to the scene and commenced a full-scale investigation into the case.
“Their efforts yielded positive results when the suspect was sighted at Ilewo-Orile with the baby and she was promptly arrested.
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“On interrogation, the suspect, who resides at No. 23 Jawando Street, Ayobo, Lagos, confessed to stealing the baby but claimed that she only wanted to use him to deceive her husband, whom she had earlier informed that she got pregnant for, as the product of the pregnancy.
“Investigation further revealed that the suspect had once lived with someone in the same house with the parents of the baby and that she was present during the naming.”
The PPRO added that the baby had been reunited with his parents.
He said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Bashir Makama, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the state Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and prosecution.
In another development, a baby suspected to be about three months’ old has been found on the street of Ugbe Akoko in the Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State.
According to a source, a young woman identified as Monsurat Arogundade, suspected to be the mother of the abandoned baby, has been arrested by the state police command.
The source said, “Two good Samaritans and landlords in Ugbe Akoko, Alhaji Lanre Kazeem and Captain Olu Oyepata (retd), were on Tuesday night alerted to an abandoned baby by a young girl passing behind their houses.
“The duo immediately came to the scene with others to pick the child. The police accompanied them to take the child to the hospital.”
The source added that the hospital welfare committee took custody of the child and contacted the state social welfare officers and the local government chairman.
He added that after 24 hours and following intelligence, the police arrested the young woman, who claimed to be the mother of the abandoned child.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Femi Joseph, confirmed the incident, saying the suspect had confessed that she was the mother of the baby.
He stated that the baby had been handed over to the officials in charge of children welfare in the state.
“The mother of the baby is with us, but she could not give us the reason for abandoning the child. She was just crying. But we have commenced an investigation into the matter,” Joseph stated.
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