I Sold My New Born Baby For N400,000 To Feed, Pay Rent — Suspect

 

The Rivers State Police Command have arrested a mother, identified as
Happiness Monday, for selling her newborn baby for N400,000.

Also arrested was a midwife, Success Igwe, who specialised in buying newborn babies.

Vanguard reports that their arrest, as gathered, followed an intelligence report about a building that serves as a birth house in Rumuokwurusi town in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, where newborn babies were allegedly sold.

Consequently, the Command boss, CP Olatunji Disu, directed the Commander of the Monitoring Squad, CSP Grace Wonwu, to unearth the baby sale gang.

The report noted that Police sources hinted that when the policemen arrived at the house on July 6, 2024, a 17-year-old pale-looking pregnant teenager whose baby was allegedly to be sold upon delivery was rescued, alongside the woman whose newly born baby was sold.

The mother of the sold newborn baby while speaking with newsmen, revealed that she was paid N400,000 for the sale of her baby.

When asked why she volunteered to sell her baby, the woman, who identified herself as Happiness Monday, blamed her action on poverty and hunger.

Without access to education, employment, or social support, she said she was left with no other option but to sell her baby.

Her confession: “I came from Akwa-Ibom to hustle in Port Harcourt. I was living on my own until a flood chased me out. I started living with my man friend. When I was pregnant, he asked me to leave the pregnancy. Later, he started accusing me of sleeping around with the pregnancy and denied paternity of the baby.

“In September 2023, he told me he was going for a job outside Port Harcourt but never returned. When I went to ask his mother of his whereabouts, she told me that she had not been on talking terms with her son for years. She said since her son didn’t accept the pregnancy, she won’t accept it either.

“Later, when the house rent expired, I went to an uncompleted building to stay. By the time I came back from antenatal one day, the owner of the uncompleted building had put a gate there and locked it. It was at that point I went to tell this nurse (pointing to the midwife) to help me get someone that would take my baby, since I didn’t have shelter or money to feed and clothe the baby. She told me she had somebody that would take the baby for N400,000. Immediately I was delivered of the baby, someone came and the baby was handed over to the person. I didn’t see the person’s face. I only told the nurse to assure me that the person taking the baby would take care of her and would not kill her.

“She said the nurse that brought the buyer said the person was a Pastor’s wife.

“Out of the N400,000, I rented an apartment, used some to pay the debt owed, and the balance of N160,000 was kept in the nurse’s account with the intention of establishing a business. It was because of this same hardship that made me take my three older children to the mother of their father back in the village. He left me for another woman because he didn’t pay my dowry.”

On her part, the 31-year-old midwife, Success Igwe, said that was the first time she was involved in the sale of a baby.

She said she gave out the baby for N450,000 and collected only N50,000 meant for delivery charges and handed the rest to Happiness.

Asked what the pregnant teenager was doing at her birth house, she said, “Her sister brought her on Thursday, July 4, 2024. She said she should be with me because she was going to a convention. When I asked if she was