What would a Nigerian woman do to have a baby? Apparently, a lot – Night Vigils, fasting, fervent prayers, a visit to the hospital for a medical check-up, consultation from herbalist and some allow the Devil to manipulate them into stealing children.
The pressure to have children has forced some women to steal other women’s babies and pass the kids off as their own. Sometimes, the babies are kidnapped from the hospital or the homes of their mothers. The good news is that all the women on this list were caught! So hats off to the Nigerian Police.
From a gang of five women to a female pastor, here are 9 times Nigerian women stole other women’s babies and passed them off as theirs.
Faliat Olatunji
On the 31st of October 2019, Falilat Olatunji was arrested for stealing a four-month-old baby boy in Abeokuta, Ogun state. Mrs. Taiwo Bello, the mother of the child, had left her baby in the room while sleeping and stepped out to wash her clothes behind the house only to return to discover that he was missing. The woman swiftly raised an alarm which attracted a lot of people and the police were informed.
A full-scale investigation into the case yielded positive results when Falilat was sighted with the baby at Ilewo Orile and was promptly arrested.
On interrogation, Faliat who lived in Lagos confessed to stealing the baby but claimed that she only wanted to use him to deceive her husband whom she had earlier informed that she got pregnant for.
Elizabeth Ibexim
On the 24th of March 2018, Ramudantu Matimu a 2-year-old, was with her mother at the Yam market in Mile 12, Lagos, on Tuesday, when the kidnapper, snatched her while her mother was occupied.
The mother of the child, a trader, was busy selling her wares and had no idea her child had been taken. By the time she noticed, she became frantic and a search party was immediately organized to help her find the child.
Fortunately, the little girl’s mother, who was already hysterical, saw her child strapped to Elizabeth’s back as she tries to board a bus some distance away from where the child was taken.
The frantic mother immediately rushed to the suspect and struggled to collect her child from her, she then raised alarm and people surrounded the suspect. But for the timely intervention of a police team stationed near the market to provide security, the woman would have been burnt to death.
Peace Chukwuemeka
On the 9th of November 2016, the Akwa Ibom State Police Command arrested a 30-year old woman, Peace Chukwuemeka, for stealing a month-old baby from her mother.
According to reports, Chukwuemeka drugged the mother of the baby before stealing the child. Confessing to the crime, Peace Chukwuemeka, said she had married for 10 years without giving birth to a child and had been desperate to have a baby.
Mrs. Bunmi Adebayo
On the 11th of July 2018, Mrs. Bunmi Adebayo, a 26-year-old woman, confessed that desperation to have a baby after 10 years of marriage made her steal a three-week-old baby in Modakeke, Osun State. According to reports, Mrs. Bunmi Adebayo stole the baby, named David Oluwaseun, on the 1st of July 2018.
Investigations revealed that Mrs. Bunmi Adeabayo had lied to her husband, who used to visit her at her abode at intervals, that she was pregnant. And after nine months she called her husband and broke the news that she had been delivered of a baby boy. The news gladdened the heart of the husband, who rushed down to her residence. But, he smelt something fishy when he demanded for the placenta and his wife was unable to present it.
The husband went further to ask her to breastfeed the baby in his presence, but Mrs. Bunmi Adebayo was unable to do so. Having realized that the husband knew she was lying, Mrs. Bunmi Adebayo absconded from the home, and her husband reported to the Police that his wife was missing.
The police caught up with Mrs. Bunimi Adebayo and the stolen baby at Orile Imo last a week later. She was arrested and the baby was rescued.
Mercy Momoh
On the 22nd of September 2019, a 39-yr-old lady identified as Mercy Momoh was arrested for allegedly stealing a two-month-old baby in Ado-Ekiti. The baby was stolen from his mother, Funmilayo Sunday after the Mercy tricked her to follow her to the State Secretariat under the guise to help collect some relief materials being given by the government to flood victims.
Mercy on getting there, sent Funmilayo to help her buy a recharge card but ran away with the baby before she returned. Upon her arrest, the suspect confessed that she stole the baby because of her dire need of a male child. She claimed that due to her inability to bear a male child, her husband got married to another woman and may likely throw her out of the house.
Unnamed Woman
On the 26th of April 2019, a woman was rescued from being lynched by an angry mob after she was nabbed for stealing a newborn baby in Rivers state.
According to reports the woman was caught red-handed after hiding the one-day-old baby inside her handbag and almost fled the area before she was apprehended behind steel village in Port-Harcourt. She confessed she was barren and in need of a child.
Chinonye Okere, and her gang
The Imo State Police Command arrested a five-woman gang who specializes in stealing children for barren women. The last evil act that got them arrested was the stealing of a three-year-old boy in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of the state.
When interviewed, the leader of the gang, Chinonye Okere, confessed she stole the child at a funeral ceremony and sold it to a 55-year-old woman who lived in Lagos for N600,000.
Mary Kulele
A woman identified as Mary Kulele from Akwanga Local Government Area in Nasarawa state was caught at a hospital in Akwanga where she quietly went into the hospital pretending to be a nice woman by rendering selfless services to pregnant women.
She confessed to taking the baby from the hospital ward when the mother took her clothes to somewhere in the hospital compound to wash. She was caught after a nurse raised an alarm over her suspicious presence in the hospital and alerted the police.
Pastor Esther Ozuem
On the 4th of April 2016, Pastor Esther Ozuem, General Overseer of Word Encounter Ministry was arrested for stealing a child. According to reports, Pastor Esther stole the nine-month-old boy from a member of her church.
Unable to breastfeed the child, she went to Alakuko Police Station to report a case of child abandonment in her church. But the story changed when police detectives later discovered that the pastor took the child from his mother, 24yrs old Christianah Ebele, the day she delivered.