Men of the Ogun State police command have arrested a 53-year-old woman, Chinyere Nwozu, for allegedly stealing a week-old baby boy.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.

Oyeyemi said Nwozu was arrested at about 9 am on Monday, when she was seen with a baby who was crying but she could not breastfeed him as a mother.

The PPRO said, “This arouses the suspicion of some members of public, who quickly alerted the police at Sango Ota divisional headquarters. Upon the information, the DPO Sango Ota, SP Dahiru Saleh, detailed his detectives to the scene where the woman was promptly arrested.

“On interrogation, she confessed to the police that she is not the biological mother of the child but that she bought the child somewhere in the Agege area of Lagos State through one Ngozi Akaeme for N500,000. Upon her confession, detectives went after the said Ngozi Akaeme and got her arrested. She confessed being an accomplice to Chinyere Nwozu, and that she actually negotiated with the biological mother of the baby who, according to her, agreed to sell the baby. Efforts to make her accompany policemen to locate the real mother of the baby proved abortive.”

Oyeyemi added that the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has directed that the suspects be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Departments for further investigation and possible prosecution.