A 60-year-old woman, Asabi Adebayo, has been arrested by the police in Oyo State for allegedly buying five babies at N5million from Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
The suspect, who planned to fly the babies abroad for sale, was said to have brought them to an orphanage in Ibadan to obtain a certified police report for them when the bubble burst.
Commissioner of Police Leye Oyebade, who paraded the suspect and the babies yesterday at the Eleyele Police Headquarters, said the woman would have escaped if not for the patriotic behavior of the officials of the orphanage, who reported the matter at the Iyaganku Police Station.
The suspect, who said she hailed from Lagos State, is also a British citizen.
The ages of the babies, (two boys and three girls) range from two years, eight months, seven months, six months and four months.
The babies have been taken to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Child Welfare; the suspect is assisting the police in their investigation.
The police commissioner said officers, who accompanied the suspect to Port-Harcourt where she claimed to have bought the babies, have not been able to apprehend the sellers.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Iyaganku, Mr Ojopagogo, said: “ A woman, who operates an orphanage came to our station last Thursday and reported to us that a 60-year-old woman came to them that she had five children and that she needed police report for the children to be flown abroad .
“Our detectives, led by a Superintendent of Police (SP) from the Juvenile Welfare Section, went to arrest the suspect.
“After her arrest, the suspect told us that she got the children for N5million and that she bought the children from a woman in Port-Harcourt. We travelled with the suspect to Port-Harcourt, unfortunately we could not find the woman.”
Also paraded were three young men- Ganiyu Taiwo (29) a meat seller, Adam Adeleke (20) furniture maker and Ayuba Jubril (19) –who confessed to breaking into a girls’ hostel, stealing phones, laptops and other valuables at Oke-Ogun Poly, Saki, Oyo State.
Others were two robbery suspects- Tunde Adeniyi (32) Aluminum doors dealer and Solomon Ajibesin 22. They were arrested in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
A bricklayer, Femi Adeyemi, a father of three, confessed to robbing his boss of his car. A man, Taiwo Samson, who bought a stolen Range Rover, was also paraded.
Another man, Daramola Adewale, 34, a food stuff seller, was paraded for threatening to post nude pictures of his girlfriend online, if she failed to pay him N50,000.
