A non-governmental organisation, Women Advocates’ Research and Documentation Centre, has petitioned the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person to intervene in the disappearance of a newborn at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro had reported that a policeman attached to the formation, Samuel Ukpabio, allegedly took the child from his mother, Fortune Obafuoso.
The aggrieved mother said on Friday, December 23, 2022, when she was delivered of her baby, the policeman arrested her alongside the newborn to the SCID on the allegation that she wanted to sell the baby, a claim she denied.
The 35-year-old noted that Ukpabio, while interrogating her at the SCID, forcefully took her baby and handed him over to a yet-to-be-identified woman from a ministry in the state.
The cop gave her N185,000 and threatened her not to return for the baby.
The state police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the policeman and two other women were arrested over the matter.
The Founding Director, WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said her organisation petitioned NAPTIP because of the circumstances surrounding the baby’s disappearance.
Akiyode-Afolabi urged the agency to investigate the matter and bring all the culprits to book.
In her petition, she stated, “Our client has been denied her right to family life and support. Her reproductive rights as a mother have also been impacted. As a mother of a newborn baby, she has been denied the bond with her new baby. We hereby posit that our client’s right to the dignity of human person as stipulated under Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution as amended was debased, based and demeaned.
“The said officer released our client (Obhafuoso), offered her N15,000 to order a ride home and thereafter threatened her never to show up or demand the whereabouts of the baby and that the government will take responsibility for the baby.
“The officer, Mr Samuel, requested our client’s account number and forwarded the sum of N170,000 for her to take care of herself. This action of the unsolicited money transfer points to a suspicion that the baby has been sold.
“In view of this, we passionately appeal for the intervention of your esteemed office to investigate this matter to bring the culprits to book.”
