The Ondo State Police Command said it had arrested a woman identified as Funmi Mogbojuri for allegedly stealing a day-old baby.

The police said the 35-year-old suspect stole the baby at the Sabo Area of Okitipupa, the headquarters of the Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state and took the baby to Sagamu in Ogun State.

Speaking on the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, said the suspect was arrested while the latter was about to christen the stolen baby

She said, “One Abass Issah of Arikawe Street, Okitipupa, came to the station and reported that his new-born baby was stolen by unknown persons. Discreet investigation by the Okitipupa Divisional Policemen led to the arrest of Funmi Mogbojuri, who absconded with the baby to Makun, Sagamu in Ogun State.

“During interrogation, she confessed to have absconded with the baby to her husband’s house. It was also discovered that she had earlier stolen another baby on the 16th of January, 2021, in Okitipupa, took the child to Igbokoda and gave him to one Lucky and said the child died few days later.”

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Speaking, the suspect confessed to the commission of the offence and pleaded for forgiveness. She said she could not ascertain the spirit that entered her to have committed such an act.

Mogbojuri also said she had two kids for her first husband before but his family prevented her from having access to them.

She said, “It was not intentional, I will just beg Nigerians to forgive me. Truly, I stole the child and I did that in order to be taking good care of the child. I have given birth before, but I never had child for the husband I’m presently with. I just like the child, that’s why I abducted the child because I have not conceived for my present husband.

“The husband I married now did not know anything about the situation, I lied to him that I was pregnant. This would be the second time I will abduct a child so I’m just pleading for forgiveness.”

The mother of the baby, Binta Alhassan, who also spoke on the incident, stated that Mogbojuri came to their house because she was very familiar with their house and requested to pass the night in her house on the day she put to bed, which she obliged.

She said, “She had a friend in our house before who she always visited but the man is no more living in our house. That is how we knew her. She came in the evening of the day I put to bed that she was stranded in Okitipupa and had no place to sleep.

“We allowed her to spend the night in one of the vacant rooms, we even gave her food to eat that night, not knowing that she had a mission. To my surprise, the following morning, while on my way from the bathroom, the woman had disappeared with the baby which I had not even been breastfed by then, it was after five days that the police found and arrested her.”

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The Police Public Relations Officer said the suspect would be charged to court as soon as investigation was concluded on the matter.

PUNCH