A 39-year-old woman, Mrs. Mercy Momoh, who allegedly stole a two-month-old baby from the mother, Mrs. Funmilayo Sunday, at the Ekiti State Secretariat, Ado Ekiti on Friday, has been arrested while attempting to escape with the infant.
Sources said the woman was arrested on Saturday at Odo Aremu, Oke Ori Omi area of Ado Ekiti.
A source said upon investigation, “The woman claimed that she said that she stole the baby because she was in serious need of a male child.
“She claimed that due to her inability to bear a male child, her husband married another wife and might send her packing.”
Momoh was alleged to have tricked the nursing mother to the state secretariat on Friday, on the pretext of assisting her to benefit from the relief materials being distributed by the state government to flood victims.
The nursing mother while narrating her ordeal, alleged that the abductor had, before that day, been patronizing her consistently at the Oja-Oba Market in the state capital.
She stated that the woman (Momoh), who had become a regular customer, invited me to the secretariat so that her husband, whom she claimed, was working there, would facilitate how I would get some of the relief materials. At the secretariat, she pretended to be waiting for someone, having entered some offices on the pretext of making arrangements for me.
“She later collected my baby and phone from me and asked me to go and buy recharge cards for her and before I returned, she had disappeared with my baby.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Caleb Ikechukwu, who confirmed the suspect’s arrest to journalists in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, said, “Investigation is still ongoing to unravel the exact situation in order to reveal what really happened.
