Police in Ogun have arrested a 23-year-old lady alleged to be a commercial sex worker, Mary Olatayo, for selling her three-week-old baby boy for N600,000.
The police said Olatayo was arrested on August 18, following complaints from the father of the baby at Mowe Divisional Police Headquarters, Ogun State.
The baby’s father had complained to the police that he had a relationship with the commercial sex worker, which resulted in a pregnancy and the delivery of the baby in question.
He claimed that when the call-girl got pregnant, he rented an apartment for her where she lived till she gave birth to a baby boy.
The father of the baby said Olatayo suddenly disappeared with the baby from the rented apartment three weeks after she delivered.
It was learnt that Olatayo relocated to a hotel, where she had gone for a ‘hook up’ with another man.
“All efforts to know where the baby is proved futile,” Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, quoted the man as saying.
The police spokesman said that the DPO of Mowe Division, SP Folake Afeniforo, who acted on the report of the baby’s father, detailed detectives to the scene to arrest the suspect.
The PPRO added that during interrogation, Olatayo “confessed to the police that she has sold the baby to someone in Anambra State at the rate of six hundred thousand Naira. She confessed that it was her friend, Chioma Esther Ogbonna, who led her to the buyer in the state and that they both shared the money equally.”
Her confession led to Chioma’s arrest and confirmation of Mary’s claims.
Oyeyemi added that investigations by the police revealed that Olatayo, who is a native of Omu-Aran in Kwara State “is a call girl who sees the baby as a disturbance to her business, hence she decided to do away with the baby.”
He added that Olatayo had an accomplice in Imo-born Chioma, “who quickly contacted the buyer in Anambra State.”
State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
The Ogun police boss also directed that all legal steps must be taken to recover the baby from its buyers.