A 34-year-old lady, identified simply as Deborah, has been arrested by the Ekiti State police command for stealing a newborn baby at a health centre in the state.
It was reported on Monday that the primary healthcare centre located at the Okeiyinmi witnessed an uproar after the new baby was declared missing less than twenty hours after birth.
The suspect was arrested in her house located around Afao road in the state capital on Wednesday by operatives of the police command after a credible tip-off.
Speaking with newsmen at the headquarters of the police command, the suspect, who regretted her actions, said she doesn’t want to lose her boyfriend, based in the United Kingdom, whom she had lied to about being pregnant.
Narrating how she carried out the criminal act in the hospital ward, Deborah said, “I planned the act to steal the baby because I had lied to my man, who is based in the UK, that I was pregnant for months.
“So, when the man decided that he was coming home to visit me and knowing full well I had been deceiving him to collect money for years.
“I pretended to be a pregnant woman by putting clothes in my stomach and gained access to the maternity ward on Sunday morning, pretending to be an expectant mother.
“I observed the mother of the baby I stole was a Northerner, and I can speak Hausa language. I quickly move closer and interact with her and her husband.
“When the husband was leaving the ward to get some things in the night on Sunday, she asked me to look after her wife and the baby.
“In the early hours of Monday, around 5 am, when I observed that the mother had slept and no nurse at the ward at that moment, I carried the new baby and escaped to my house just for my boyfriend to see.”
The commissioner of police, Joseph Eribo, said the arrest of the suspect was made possible following a tip-off by a citizen of the area who heard the news of the missing baby.
Eribo noted that the suspect left a polythene bag at the hospital, which contained some baby items and a receipt for items bought from a popular supermarket in the state capital.
The CP said, “Due to our discreet investigation and professionalism of our men, the suspect left the bag and the receipt she used to buy those items.
“We approached the supermarket and they gave us the CCTV footage, which showed her face. We got some credible information on her whereabouts from the person who knew she wasn’t pregnant and carrying a new baby, after the news of the incident went viral.
“We moved in and arrested her on Wednesday in her house, where he confessed to the crime to cover up her lies to her UK-based husband.”
Eribo appealed to the people of the state to be vigilant and support the police with credible information in their communities, ” whenever we see something unusual and strange, like the person who informed us on this incident.”
