IZUNNA OKAFOR
A grandmother, identified as Oluchukwu Nwosu, is currently in Police net for stealing and selling her daughter’s three-month old baby boy for N50,000 in Anambra State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the incident occured at Nnewi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of the State, where the culprit was said to have stolen the child from her daughter (the child’s mother) shortly after she gave birth to him.
The child was however, rescued through the intervention of the State’s Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo, whose Ministry began monitoring the case and tracking the suspected buyers of the baby after the child’s mother, Ijeoma Nwosu, cried to her office to seek her intervention.
Howbeit, the child looks extremely malnourished, as the person who bought him, Evelyn Egwuatu, had been feeding him only soya beans and water since the past three months the baby had been in her custody.
It was gathered that the buyer was connected for the deal through one Mrs. Ebelechukwu Uba and Mr. Tochukwu Asiegbu, who served as the middlemen in the illegal transaction. Everyone involved in the case has however, been apprehended.
While the buyer, Mrs. Egwuatu said she gave one of the middlemen (Mrs. Uba) the sum of N200,000 (two hundred thousand Naira) to obtain the child for her; it was gathered that Uba paid the grandmother of the child N50,000, gave her co-middleman (Mr. Asiegbu) the sum of N30,000, and kept the rest for herself as her profit from the transaction.
The 45-year old grandmother of the child, Mr. Oluchukwu Nwosu, claimed she sold the baby due to hardship in the country, as they found it difficult to feed themselves since the child was born. She also revealed that her daughter gave birth to the child outside wedlock, adding that it was the third child her daughter has been delivered of outside wedlock. She also revealed that the other two children by the daughter are currently in the State’s Community Children’s Home in Awka.
She however, pleaded for forgiveness, claiming that she only sold the third child to see money to buy food due to intense hunger in the land.
Commenting on the matter, the Honourable Commissioner, Obinabo, utterly condemned such gross illegality and lamented over the welfare and health condition of the malnourished child, as well as the pains the child’s mother had been passing through since the disappearance of her baby.
She said the buyer was able to subject him into such lamentable condition because he was illegally abducted without the knowledge of the State Government, and hence was not being checked upon by the Ministry’s officials, who usually monitor and ensure the welfare of every child legally adopted in the state.
The Commissioner expressed her strong worry over the ongoing illegal adoption practices in the state despite the government’s continued efforts to eliminate such illegalities.
While noting that the apprehended suspects will be prosecuted and legally rewarded for their crime, Commissioner Obinabo further issued a stern warning to those involving in such unlawful dealings, stressing that anyone apprehended would face the full weight law.