A 31-year-old father has connived with his wife,23, to sell off their only child- a baby boy at the rate of N500, 000.
Gideon Ani who hails from Abia state was arrested and is currently undergoing interrogation at the Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, Lagos state.
The man who had a wife named Victoria from Ebonyi state decided to marry the second woman simply identified as Joy because the first wife couldn’t bear him a child.
And now, the child arrived, all he could do was to sell him off to make some quick cash.
Speaking to the police during interrogation, Ani said, “I am jobless, I had no money and was suffering along with my family. Then a strange thought entered my mind.
“I thought about it for a while, and I realised that since the baby was mine, I could do whatever I wanted with him.”
He confided in his first wife who welcomed the idea and swung into action to ensure the deal struck positively.
Victoria, searched and finally found a buyer and they reached a consensus of exchanging the baby for N500,000.
A police source said, “The husband brought Joy from Abia State and lodged her at a motel in Orile area of Lagos. He took the baby from her under the guise of taking the baby to the clinic for treatment.”
According to Punch, Ani locked Joy inside a room in the motel where they lodged her in order to foil any intended escape attempt while he disappeared with her son.
It was learnt that the woman remained at the motel for about four days before she was fnally rescued by a staff who asked a floor manager to open the door.
The police source continued, “By the time they found the woman, she could not even speak properly anymore, she was too weak. She had no phone with her. She had not eaten for a long time.”
Joy was able to narrate the incident to the police at Orile division after she got back to her senses.
She directed the police on how they would locate her husband.
“We eventually found him and he also led us to where we arrested his first wife. The woman told us that she only agreed with the husband after he pressured her to go along with the plan,” the police source stated.
He added, “The first thing the man said was that he only gave the child out since it was his to give and that he did not actually collect money. But we later learnt that he gave him out N500,000 was agreed.”
The police have arrested the buyer of the baby, whose identity is still being kept secret.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Ani and his first wife still maintain that no money had exchanged hands but the investigators at the DCI told Saturday PUNCH that whether they had been paid for the baby or not, they would get to the root of the matter.
When our correspondent visited the DCI, it was learnt that investigators had prevented journalists from photographing the suspects.
A relations of the first wife, whom our correspondent saw at the department explained that he could not comment as efforts were being made by their families to settle the issue.
The state Police Public Relations Officer,DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the incident adding that the boy has been given back to him mum after he was recovered.
ZHe further disclosed that the detectives had their hands on the deck to ensure that the father is brought to book.
