62-year-old Angela Nwaelechi has been arrested by the Cross River State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for allegedly tricking a 16-year old girl, Oma Samuel, and taking her four-day-old baby girl for trafficking purposes.
Nwaelechi was caught at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, on her way to Lagos with the baby. They also arrested one Ifeanyi, a suspected accomplice.
Controller of Immigration in the State, Adeuyi Funke Cecelia, while handing over the matter to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) yesterday in Calabar, said they were arrested on December 1, when the baby was still four days old.
Ifeanyi said he found the girl when she was six months pregnant and homeless, sleeping outside a church at Ambo Street and be decided to accommodate her until she gave birth.
Although Oma Samuel admitted that Ifeanyi took her in when she was pregnant and had nowhere to stay, the teenage mother said she never agreed that her baby be taken from her.
She said she had no idea what was going on and was tricked out of her baby by the duo. She said: “Ifeanyi told me that a woman is looking for a wife to her son and I said but I am pregnant already and he said no problem.
Later on when I saw the man, who was an imbecile, I declined the offer. They told me the woman has another son that would marry me. But when I thought about it, I said no, that I don’t want to marry anybody again. They later stole my baby.”
