I needed a child, says housewife that bought 5-yr-old girl for N350,000

A 45-year-old housewife, Mrs Joy Edum, has said she needed a child and so, without her husband’s knowledge, bought a five-year-old girl for N350,000.

Mrs Edum, who is from Abua Odum Local Government Area of Rivers State, said: “My husband is not aware of what I am doing, because he will not be in support. To be sincere, it is because I don’t have a child that I decided to buy this baby. I promised to pay them N350,000.”

For allegedly stealing and selling the five-year-old girl (names withheld) for N350,000, a 22-year-old woman, Chiamaka Ukeje, suspected to be the mother, Mrs Edum, alongside two others, were paraded by the Imo State Police Command, yesterday.

According to the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike, “the child has been recovered and reunited with her family.”

Narrating the Police breakthrough, Ezike said: “Operatives of the Scorpion Squad, acting on a tip-off, arrested a four-man child trafficking syndicate that conspired and stole a five-year-old female at Umuduru Isiala Mbano and sold the baby to one Joy Edum of Rumwara Obiakpo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for N350,000.”

The Police boss revealed that “they all met themselves at the Federal Prisons, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.”

Confessions

However, one of the suspects, Ukeje, told Vanguard: “I did not steal the child. I ran away with the child because my uncle and my father were fighting.

“Madam Ruth asked me to sell the child to her for N400,000, and I gave the child to her. But the money has not been given to me. She promised to give the money later.”

Explaining her involvement, Mrs. Ruth Solomon, 41, who is from Umuehie Anara in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State, said: “I was not the one that bought the child.

“Chiamaka asked me to show her who will buy the child. They never promised to give me any share. Chiamaka is the mother of the child.”

One Sandra Ezuka, 26, from Ozoro in Isoko Local Government Area, Delta State, who claimed to be a friend to Chiamaka, said she was not involved in the arrangement that led to the stealing and selling of the five-year-old baby.  (Vanguard)