According to Punch Metro, Njoku was arrested by officers attached to the Makinde police division around 2:00 am on Wednesday, November 4, on her way to deliver the baby to the couple.
Njoku led the State Intelligence Bureau, who is handling the case, to arrest her two accomplices identified as Patience Nwaogbo and Ngozi Izuora.
The 25-year-old is a sales girl in Omuwa Town, Imo state, who was sent by her accomplices on Tuesday, November 3, to Lagos.
The driver of the vehicle, became suspicious when Njoku could not breastfeed the baby when he cried, but rather gave him baby food. The police on patrol were alerted by the driver when they got to Oshodi Oke area of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, where Njoku was interrogated and arrested.
The police said Njoku, Nwaogbo and Izuora have made confessional statements, but their collaborator, who is said to be Njoku’s aunt, is currently on the run.
Njoku, who spoke to Punch Metro, claimed she has four children in Imo, and the plan was that she would give the baby to the couple in the Cele area.
She said: “I have not been to Lagos before. I work as an apprentice in a shop in Onitsha, Anambra State. It was my aunt, Madam Ngozi, who asked me to bring the baby to the couple after they had made payment to her.
“My aunt collected the baby from a lady in Imo who wanted to dispose of him. I do not know how much she gave the mother of the baby. I started off this journey at about 11am on Tuesday. I took a private car and my aunt paid the fare. She had collected the N1m, but she had yet to give me any share as of when I travelled. While in the car, I could not breastfeed the baby. I was giving him only baby food.””
When we got to Lagos, the baby started crying and I gave him more formula. I had not met the buyers before. I was only given their phone number and I was to meet them in the Cele area. The wife of the man is barren, and she wanted to adopt the baby. The police have arrested the couple too, but they were released on bail.”
The driver suspected that I was not the baby’s mother and reported me to policemen on patrol. I have four children too in Imo. They are with a guardian. But I am not living with my husband.”
Fatai Owoseni, the Lagos state commissioner of police, who paraded the suspect, said the police were on the trail of other members of the syndicate in Imo state.
However the baby, who was under police care, is yet to be reunited with his parents.
A similar incident occurred just last month, when Jennifer Onyebuchi was arrested by police officers in Lagos after she allegedly stole a nine month old baby in Ajegunle and fled to Okija in Anambra state.
Onyebuchi had only known the mother of the baby, Aina Adetola for two weeks before stealing her child. The two women owned shops in the same area and had started to establish a close relationship.
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