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• No child was sold, baby in our custody –Commissioner
• AIG probes cops, couple, NSCDC officers, ministry officials
From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
The alleged exchange of a new born baby for N25 million or N700,000 at the police clinic of the Ebonyi State police command, Abakaliki the state capital has remained a subject of controversy..
The baby boy was delivered by a single mother, Nwanneka Susan Nweze from Umuobuna in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state. She claimed that the baby was reportedly given to a childless couple for N25 million but that she got a paltry N700,000 from some police officers at the command who allegedly negotiated the transaction in controversial circumstances.
Nweze, it was gathered, got pregnant without the knowledge of any member of her family. When the pregnancy was getting to the delivery stage, she started looking for a way to leave Abakaliki and give the baby up for adoption after delivery, so that none of her family members would be aware of the baby. She had earlier given birth to two children out of wedlock, a girl and a boy now 19 and 12 years old respectively.
She reportedly got connected to someone who agreed to take care of her until she gave birth. She was subsequently taken to Afikpo, another city in the southern part of the state.
The people that took her to Afikpo got her an apartment and nurtured her while waiting for her to give birth. She was registered for ante-natal in a hospital in the area by her hosts.
However, Nweze later changed her mind and decided not to give the baby to the man that initiated her relocation to Afikpo. Her reason was that the man was compelling her to change her surname to his, which she said made her to start exercising scepticism over the whole issue.
She resolved to seek help elsewhere as her delivery stage was approaching. She then fled the place to the hospital where she was registered for antenatal and kept her bags there, she said.
In the area, she reportedly met a woman who she narrated her condition to, and the woman allegedly promised to take her to a childless couple.
She said she was on the road when four persons accosted her, informed her they were police officers and said she was under arrest. One of them was a woman, she stated. The four persons reportedly came from police headquarters, Abakaliki.
When they got to Abakaliki, one of the police officers, she said, immediately registered her for another ante-natal care at the police clinic in Abakaliki.
Nweze alleged that the male police officer that registered her for ante-natal care started harassing her, saying he paid N50,0000 to obtain the ante-natal card for her at the police clinic.
She said she was bullied and harassed by the officers until she put to birth. She said the officers then contacted a highly placed childless couple who spoke to her on phone about their interest for her baby, adding that an amount was agreed between her and the couple.
She said after much pressure from the policemen, she agreed to release her baby for N700,000. She said the money was paid into an account that was opened for her for the transaction by the police officers that arrested her.
She further disclosed that after the money was paid, she was taken to court by the police officers to swear to an affidavit on the matter. She said she was further infuriated when the police officer that was harassing her demanded N100,000 from the N700,000. She said her refusal to part with the money might have led to her arrest by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state few days after she returned to her house in Abakaliki.
She alleged that she was mourning her mother’s death while she was away in Afikpo when the NSCDC operatives came to arrest her for child trafficking. She claimed to have spent seven weeks in their custody.
She said she was finally released when her daughter threatened to contact a lawyer to file a suit against them over the detention.
She said: “Before giving birth, a policewoman who they said is in charge of child welfare in the police command, came to me that a woman wanted to speak to me on phone and I asked her who that woman was. She told me that the woman was the one who sent for them to go and arrest me in Afikpo. The woman later called me, and I knew she was not a small person.
“The woman started asking me what happened at Afikpo, that she was hearing something that happened in Afikpo. I told her it was not a phone matter, that I would not explain anything on the phone. She said she would be sending things to the officer to be taking care of me and be giving me whatever I want.
“The woman further told me that they would do whatever I wanted them to do for me and the baby. I told her that I didn’t want money for the baby, that the same officer had lied against me that I bargained for N900,000 for the baby with Afikpo people after giving birth. She said a woman who gave birth to a baby must be given something to be taking care of herself.
“So I said if she could give me the N900,000, but she said that was too much, that people would claim I was selling my baby. She said I should consider N500,000. She threatened to expose me, that I was selling my baby. But I said I would not take N500,000 but would consider N700,000. They agreed to give me N700,000.”
Family petitions AIG
Nweze’s family has petitioned Assistant Inspector General of Police(AIG), Force Criminal Investigation Department(FCID), Enugu alleging that the state police command conspired with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to sell her baby for N25million but gave the woman a paltry N700,000.
In the petition obtained by Saturday Sun, and signed by Nzogbu Kingsley, a lawyer, the family accused some police officers of the state command, the NSCDC and the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development of conspiracy, abduction, child trafficking, unlawful arrest, and other related crimes and demanded that the baby should be returned to them.
The family alleged that NSCDC personnel arrested and detained Nwanneka for several weeks, during which the officer-in-charge of legal matters allegedly altered her extrajudicial statement.
The family claimed that Nwanneka was abducted and taken to a police clinic where she gave birth, and that the baby was sold without her consent.
The petition reads in part: “That sometime on the 19th day of June, 2025, I got a distress call from the wife of the landlord to my mother to the effect that my younger sister, Susannah Nwanneka Nweze was arrested by the men of Nigeria Security and civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Ebonyi state commend, Abakaliki.
“It is our brief that upon our client’s visit to the NSCDC office, his younger sister narrated her ordeals in the hands of the suspect’s.
“That on the first week of March 2025, she was abducted by a known Afikpo businessman who has a shop at Ahia ofuu in Abakaliki and was taken to Ukpa in Afikpo from where she was taken to an obscure place at the police clinic Abakaliki by some officers (names withheld by us) through the directives and instructions of a senior officer.
“That she was confined and held back for three months and two weeks, the period which the culprits compelled her to make a video that she would voluntarily sell her unborn baby boy to them.
“That when she eventually gave birth to her said baby on 8th day of June, 2025, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd culprits hereinabove conspired and hastily sold the baby boy at the sum of N25 million and gave our client’s sister, Nwanneka a token of N700, 000.00 while they discharged her on the 11th day of June, 2025 and told her to travel out of the town.
“That since she had no other place to go to, she decided to go back to her late mother’s rented apartment at Abakaliki where she related the issue to her landlord’s wife upon enquiry on why her breasts were wet and dripping like a nursing mother’s.
“That her late mother’s landlady, through the help of her good spirited neighbours, involved the men of NSCDC who invited Susannah Nwanneka Nweze and took her statement, as narrated to her elder brother, our client, but has since kept her in their custody where she is being manipulated by the culprits on how to reframe her extra judicial statement to suit their criminality.
“That our further brief is to the effect that O/C Legal of the NSCDC, after our client’s sister had made her extra judicial statement, came and booked her out and changed her statement without inviting the culprits herein for interrogation, thereby compounding felony.
“That our client informed us as we verily believe him that his sister informed him that there is a high level arrangement between the O/C JWC and O/C legal to release his sister from their custody and take her to an unknown destination, so as to conceal their dastardly act of child stealing, child trafficking and abduction of our client’s sister.
“However, having regards to the facts and circumstances hereof, our client has been thrown into psychological trauma as he never anticipated such fraudulent and criminal act occasioned on his sister by the culprits.”
AIG begins probe, summons ministry, NSCDC officials, police officers
On July 31, 2025, the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex, Enugu, Chukwudi Chris Ariekpere reportedly quizzed the Head of Department, Child Development at the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, and the Officer-in-Charge, Legal, Ebonyi State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), over the matter
The AIG also invited the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in the state, Mrs Felecia Nwankpuma and a couple to meet him in the office with the baby on Friday 19th August, 2025.
The letter from the AIG summoning the commissioner and the couple dated 4th August,2025, was obtained by Saturday Sun and addressed to the commissioner. The AIG was also said to be investigating some police officers of Ebonyi State command accused of being involved in the matter.
When contacted, the state Commissioner of Police, Adaku Uche-Anya said the AIG CID was instigating the matter.
She told Saturday Sun that she would not join issues with anybody on the issue and was only waiting for the AIG’s report and verdict on the matter.
“There have been so many reports in the press. The AIG CID force annex who is my boss is on the matter. A petition was written on the matter and he is investigating it.
“So I cannot comment on it. We will only wait for the report of his investigation and his verdict. For me as a subordinate, I cannot start commenting on what my boss is already on.
“So, I cannot join issues with anybody in the press for now on the matter,” the CP stated.
NSCDC denies involvement, detaining victim for weeks
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in the state has denied being part of the sale of the baby, as alleged. The corps also denied detaining the mother of the child for over six weeks as she alleged.
Speaking to the reporter in his office at the corps headquarters in Abakaliki, the state capital, Commandant of the corps, Francis Nnadi said: “It’s one of the cases we handled sometime last month. There was a complaint actually from her brother or somebody here concerning the sister, that the sister’s child was taken over from her at a certain point of birth, and that N700,000 was given to her. And of course, that’s against the law, selling your child.
“So, we brought her in here as a suspect and commenced the investigation. We wrote to the police clinic where she was delivered. We wrote to Women Affairs Ministry.
“We went into the investigation to find out the details about what happened. She was there with us for a week plus. We invited the policewoman who was in charge of child trafficking, she declined. We wrote to the CP to submit her. She didn’t come.
“In the course of that, of course, we couldn’t keep her more than necessary. We got NAPTIP involved in it. They came here. We handed over the woman to NAPTIP for further investigation and other things. Soon after, my legal officer was invited by the Police AIG in Enugu for clarification.
“We were never part of the negotiation or whatever they did to the child. We only got involved at the point the woman was crying and then she was brought here. So, that was the only time we got involved.
“In order to prove further, we had to write to all these ministries to confirm her story. We found out that it was bigger than what we had seen. We handed her over to NAPTIP. It is duly their job to do, officially. We have the details of the handing over to NAPTIP officials.
“When my legal officer was invited by the AIG in Enugu, she went there. And after the interview, they said, no, she has no problem, she should go back to her work. And that is the last we have heard about this for now. I think the police was investigating their personnel.
“I don’t know anybody that is involved in that. But for whatever it is, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps was never involved in that transaction,” he stated.
Baby in our custody –Ministry
Meanwhile, the state Ministry of Woman Affairs and Social Development has revealed that the baby was in their custody.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Felicia Nwankpuma disclosed this to the reporter in an interview.
She described as false rumours making the rounds that she was detained by the AIG CID force headquarters in Enugu for days over the matter.
She said the ministry was keeping custody of the said baby boy in line with the Child Rights Act that empowers it to do so for vulnerable children and urged the public to disregard the media reports alleging that she had been in detention since Monday.
“On this matter, someone petitioned AIG Enugu and investigation into the matter is still ongoing. I was invited to show the baby, for them to know that this baby is with us.
“So, we have taken the baby to Enugu and AIG has seen the baby. We came back with the baby. We were invited to come to Enugu with the baby and we returned with the baby on that same day, 19th August.
“We took the baby from the police to Enugu because they had already given us a handover note. We took the baby from them and we have to wait for the AIG to conclude his investigation.
“We are not trying to cover anybody on this matter or pretend that the baby is not with us and we are saying the baby is with us. The baby is with us, no baby was sold, the ministry did not conspire neither did we agree with anybody to sell any baby and the word “sell” is against the child and nature. Babies are not sold.
“Before the police came with a letter, we were informed that a couple was requesting for this particular baby, that the mother of the baby said she was financially and emotionally down to care for the baby. They said a lot of things in the letter but the ministry didn’t just rely on a consent letter from the mother or anybody.
“We said okay, until we see the person that wrote that letter, then we can now know the next line of action. The baby was never adopted because when you talk about adoption, it’s a legal term that can be done by the court but when a child is brought to us, depending on the vulnerability of the child, the first thing we do is to take custody of this child. We take some of them to the hospital first so that the child will receive medical care. But some we take straight to the motherless babies home,” she said.
