Government Area of Cross River State, said yesterday in Calabar that
poverty and lack of where to stay after she gave birth made her sell
her two weeks old baby girl for N20,000.
Maria, who was arrested by the police along five other accomplices,
said her boyfriend who got her pregnant, asked her to abort the baby
but said a doctor helped her with free antenatal care and food until
she gave birth.
This, she added, prompted her to agree to sell the baby when
arrangements were made to sell.
Paraded along with Maria were a 55-year-old medical doctor, Okokon
Offiong Okoho, the proprietor of Evangel Clinic,of 2, Atu Street; a
70-year-old matron of Sadatoe Maternity located at Umoh Street and a
nurse at the maternity who allegedly made the plans to sell the girl
to an Abuja-based lady who is now on the run.
However, plans to sell the two weeks old girl was leaked to the police
by a Senior Secondary Two girl of NYSC Demonstration Secondary School,
Calabar , Maria Elemi, whose parents Maria was living with after she
delivered the baby.
"When I came back from school on Monday, Maria told me she wanted to
take the baby to the parents of the boy who impregnated her since she
can no longer cope with taking care of the baby," she said.
Maria said when they got to Fuller by Inyang Street in Calabar South,
they met Mrs Elemi and her daughter in an SUV car, adding that Maria
gave the girl to the matron who handed her over to the buyer.
She said: "The woman gave Maria N20,000 and asked her to pay the
nurse at the Evangel Clinic and use the rest for herself."
The girl said she became suspicious when the driver of the SUV told
the woman with the baby that her husband said she should take her to
the airport to catch a flight to Abuja.
"I started wondering why they should take the girl to the airport when
the boyfriend to Maria and her parents live here in Calabar," Maria
stated.
Cross River Police Public Relations Officer, ASP John Eluu, who
paraded Maria along with the doctor and Matron, said when information
got to the police at the Federal Housing Police Station, detectives
swung into action and arrested the suspects.
Eluu said investigations were continuing to apprehend the buyer of the
girl who is now on the run.
-Vanguard
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