A 66-year-old woman, Adebisi Balogun, has been arraigned before a magistrates’ court for stealing a four-month-old baby in Osogbo, Osun State.
Her neighbours at Ayetoro area of Osogbo who heard a baby cry in her apartment, raised alarm because she was not known to have been delivered of a baby.
The neighbours approached and interrogated her on how she got the baby and that she gave conflicting accounts of how she got the baby.
One of the neighbours said, “At first, she told us that the baby belonged to her daughter who gave birth at a church. She told other people that she was the one who gave birth to the baby. At this point some youths in our area labelled her a thief and wanted to lynch her, but we stopped them and invited the police to arrest and investigate her.”
At the police station, the suspect told the police that, “Let me confess; the baby is not mine. I don’t have a child. I told my friend, Iya Tope Ede, of my childless condition and she promised to help me. She took me to Ore where I bought the baby. I paid N1.4m. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I just want to have a child; not that I want to harm the baby.”
The prosecutor, Inspector Adeoye Kayode, told the court that the baby had been missing since April, 2021, and that the offence contravened and was punishable under Sections 516, 371(1) and 249(D) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Volume II, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.
Adebisi pleaded guilty to the offence, and her counsels, Okobe Najite and M.O. Akinwande, urged the court to be lenient with her.
The magistrate, A. O. Daramola, remanded the suspect and adjourned the case to October 12.
