Heartbreaking as pure water seller sells 18-month-old baby to pay loan taken from microfinance company

Efforts to recover an 18-month-old baby girl are underway as Nigeria’s Ogun Police Command has commenced an investigation into her sale by her mother who is a Pure Water Seller to offset a loan taken from a microfinance company.

According to Pulse.ng, the arrest of the 33-year-old woman identified as Olaide Adekunle follows a complaint by her worried husband, Nureni Rasaq at Sango Divisional Headquarters.
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Ogun Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abimbola Oyeyemi who confirmed the developments said that the suspect who is a resident of Sango in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, left home for Lagos on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, with their baby girl, Moridiat, but returned home without her.

Rasaq had tried many times to know from his wife, who happens to be a sachet water vendor, the whereabouts of the baby but she could not give any meaningful account, hence his decision to head to the police.

“Upon the report, the DPO Sango Division, CSP Dahiru Saleh, detailed his detectives to go after the woman and she was promptly arrested.

“On interrogation, the suspect confessed that she has sold the baby to someone in Lagos at the rate of ₦600,000 [GH¢15,600].

“When asked the reason for her action, she stated that she borrowed money from a microfinance bank, and when she was unable to pay back the money, the bank agents started dragging her and threatening to deal decisively with her.

“It was consequent upon this that she ran to Lagos and started hawking sachet water.

“It was while hawking that she met a man who introduced her to the woman that eventually bought the child in Lagos,” Pulse.ng quotes PPRO Oyeyemi as saying.

The Ogun State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) has been directed by the acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Babakura Muhammed to take over the investigation.