In The Blood? Father, daughter nabbed for stealing 2-month-old baby

A man and his daughter have been arrested by the police in Lagos State for allegedly stealing and selling a two-month-old baby.

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A 65-year-old house painter, Jamiu Jimoh, and his 35-year-old daughter, Yetunde Osin, a birth attendant, has been arrested by the police in Lagos State for allegedly stealing a two month old baby  girl from its mother.

The Nation reports that Jimoh and Osin were arrested by police operatives attached to the Igbgbo Police Station, Ikorodu, after they stole the baby and exchanged her with a dead baby and gave to the mother to make her believe her child had died at childbirth.

t was gathered that the police arrested the suspects following a tip-off that they belonged to a child stealing and selling syndicate.

It was learned that Osin who practices her birth attendant trade at her residence at 4, Kadara Street, Oyingbo, had helped a pregnant woman identified as Stella, to deliver her baby on November 9, 2017, at her home but afterward, she was said to have told the woman that the child was dead and even showed the 28-year-old mother a dead child.

She then brought the live baby to her father in Ikorodu for onward sale.

But during interrogation, Osin disputed the story, saying she found the baby under a bridge near her Oyingbo home.

On November 9, I was walking along the road in Oyingbo. I found a baby on the ground. It was a female child, so I took it. That was the mistake I made. I should have gone to report to the police, but because it was a female baby, I liked it.

That was how I took the baby home. But when I saw how everyone was behaving, gossiping, I brought the baby to my father in Ikorodu, so that I could be taking care of her from there.

Even when I couldn’t come to Ikorodu from Oyingbo, my father was there to take care of her. On Sunday after leaving his home, someone called me at night that my father had been arrested.

I am a hairdresser, but I am also a traditional birth attendant. The baby wasn’t born at my place. I wasn’t the one that helped the mother of the child deliver the baby.

But when the police heard that I was a traditional birth attendant and questioned me about whether I assisted the baby’s mother during delivery, I said yes.

I found the baby under the bridge on Apapa Road, Oyingbo. The baby has been with me since November.”

Her father who lives on 4, Aro Street, Ikorodu, also denied having knowledge that the baby was stolen.

In an interview, Jimoh allegedly said:

“She (Osin) is not the baby’s mother. She was not pregnant. I don’t know the baby’s mother. My daughter has never brought children to me to take care of before.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Dolapo Badmos, has confirmed the arrest of the father and daughter, adding that the police has begun investigations into the matter and the duo would be charged to court at the end of investigations.