Child Trafficker Nabbed …Bought 2-day-old baby for N1.2m

From JUDEX OKORO, Calabar
Efforts by Cross River Immigration Service to check passengers along Nigeria waterways have yielded positive results as the Command has nabbed a Cameroonian woman for allegedly trying to traffick  a two-day-old baby boy.
Luck was said to have run out on the suspect, who gave her name as Evelin, (42), when she was caught by Immigration officers at the Calabar sea  port while attempting to
arrange travelling documents for the baby she allegedly bought for N1.2million.
Investigations revealed that Evelyn, from South –West region of Cameroon and a professional teacher in one of the secondary schools in the area, bought the baby  from one of the baby factories located in Delta State and she had allegedly been a regular trafficker.
She had arrived in the country penultimate week and headed straight to the baby factory said to be close to the River Niger.
Parading the suspect before newsmen, the Cross River State Commandant of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. Samuel Igoche, said: “My men at the Calabar Port got wind of the illicit deal when the suspect paid in N1.2million into a commercial bank account belonging to the owner of the baby factory in an attempt to collect the baby.
“The lady came from Cameroon to Nigeria on Friday, August 16, 2013 without any sign of pregnancy but this morning (Wednesday), she was found to be carrying a baby and when my men examined her, there were no signs that she just gave birth, so she and the baby were apprehended.”
Igoche stated that the woman claimed to have, “miraculously given birth to a baby girl who is now in Cameroon” after taking some herbs sometime last year, in Okigwe.
Speaking to newsmen, the Immigration officer in-charge of the Calabar sea port, Ame Geoffrey, said that to the best of his knowledge, the suspect came to Nigeria without any form of pregnancy and after two days she produced a two-day-old male child, adding that one of the officers in charge of Anti Human-Trafficking unit had examined her and it was discovered that she (Evelyn) had no sign that she just gave birth.
In an interview, the suspect, who came into Nigeria in accompany with her 70-year-old mother,  Anatasia, said that she did not buy the child and insisted that she should be  taken to hospital for medical examination.
She further said: “I don’t have somebody in Cameroon to take care of me and that was why I came to Nigeria to deliver before returning to my country. I am married and my husband is in Cameroon but there is nobody to take care of me in Cameroon that was why I came to Nigeria to deliver.”
Her mother, Anatasia, said: “I came to Nigeria with my daughter to see somebody who will help her deliver her pregnancy and told her to pay N1.2million into the bank account which she did.”