A woman, identified simply as Jane, has been arrested for allegedly stealing a five-month-old baby from its mother on Monday, at Ebem Ohafia in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.
The incident occurred on March 2, but was only reported to the police by the family on Saturday, March 7.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ene Okon said the police quickly arrested a relative of Jane living at Ebem-Ohafia who the command planned to send with policemen to Port Harcourt to search for the suspect.
He denied that the Ebem-Ohafia DPO sent the couple and the suspect’s relative to Port Harcourt to search for Jane without any letter or police operatives accompanying them.
The baby’s parents, Mr. Adam Imoh and Mrs. Ijeoma Imoh, said the baby was stolen from a shop where the mother was working in her sister’s hairdressing salon.
Ijeoma said when Jane visited the salon and saw her baby boy named Faith; she began to praise Faith who she said was plump and handsome. She said: “Jane carried him and bought biscuits for him and later dropped him before leaving the shop. “She returned later with babies’ clothes for him. Not long after, she carried Faith. After a while, she said she wanted to pick her phone which she was charging in a nearby shop.”
Ijeoma said at that juncture, she unwittingly asked her daughter to accompany Jane to the shop with Faith so that if the baby started to cry, she could bring him back. She added that after a few minutes, she began to feel the baby’s absence so she went out to look for Jane at the shop she said she was going to. Ijeoma said that on her way, she saw her daughter who accompanied Jane, returning on a motorcycle.
She said: “I asked her where Jane was and she told me that Jane had entered a car with my baby. “At that point, I ran off to the shop Jane said she was going to collect her phone from. At the shop, I was told that Jane left the shop a few minutes earlier.
“I became confused and we began running around to see if we could get her. Later that evening, we went to the Ebem Ohafia Police Station to report the matter.” On his part, the baby’s father, Adam, said he and his wife had gone to Port Harcourt in search of the woman after Ebem-Ohafia Police Station sent them there without accompanying letter or a police operative.
He said they had to report afresh at Eleme Police Station which mobilised for the search of Jane. According to him, Jane has not been seen. He said they only saw Jane’s mother who said she did not know her whereabouts.
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