The suspects. Inset: baby and mother. Credit: Punch |
The mother, Onyinyechi Nwabueze, 38, was paraded by the
police at the ‘A’ Division of the
Plateau State Police Command.
Policemen from the division, led by the Divisional Police
Officer, Mr. Victor Dimkpa, a Chief Superintendent of Police, had rescued the
baby, Chiamaka, in Awka, the Anambra State capital.
The story was exclusively reported by PUNCH Metro on Friday.
Blessing, who was staying with her mother at Rukuba Road
area of Jos North, was allegedly put in the family way by her boyfriend.
After Chiamaka was delivered, Godspower’s mother, who was
not comfortable with the development, allegedly decided to get rid of the baby.
According to Blessing, on July 19, her mother sent her on a
phony errand in order to effect the “diabolical” act.
She said, “My mother sent me on an errand, but when I came
back I asked for my baby and my mother asked, ‘which baby?’ She feigned
ignorance and at that point I started crying and reported the incident to the
Police.”
Police Commissioner, Mr. Chris Olakpe said, “After the
mother sent her daughter away, she (Nwabueze) stopped a tricycle and took the
baby to the first receiver, one Eucharia Anyaegbu. Anyaegbu transferred the
baby to the second receiver, Rita Maduako, who finally sold the baby to
53-year-old unmarried woman, Grace Nnadozie.”
Nnadozie, however, told our correspondent that after she
applied to an orphanage home for a child without any result for the past two
years, she sought Anyaegbu’s help.
She said she gave N500,000 to Anyaegbu for the baby. Anyaegbu gave N350, 000 to Maduako. Maduako was to give N200,000 to the baby’s grandmother.
But Nwabueze denied that she sold the baby. She said her daughter was very wayward, so
she decided to give the baby out to somebody else who would take proper care of
her.
She said, “How can I sell my granddaughter. My daughter is
not capable of taking care of the baby and I decided to give her to somebody
who will take proper care of her.”
Nwabueze explained that she lost her husband in 2007 and
since then, she and the six children she had with him, had been finding things
difficult.
- Punch