They claimed Susannah was abducted and taken to a police clinic, where she delivered the child, who was then sold without the family’s consent.
The family of Mr. Nweze Philip Obasi from Umuobuna Etiti Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has accused officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in Abakaliki of colluding with the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to prevent the recovery of a baby allegedly sold by police officers.
The people’s insight had earlier, on July 1, reported that the family petitioned four officers of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) over alleged conspiracy, abduction, child trafficking, unlawful arrest, and compounding of a felony.
In their petition, the family alleged that SP Loveth Uche, head of the Juvenile and Women Centre (JWC) at the Ebonyi State Police Command, conspired with two other police inspectors to sell the newborn son of their daughter, Susannah Nwanneka Nweze, for N25 million.
They claimed Susannah was abducted and taken to a police clinic, where she delivered the child, who was then sold without the family’s consent.
Following the people’s insight series of reports, the NSCDC transferred the case to NAPTIP, stating that the agency is legally empowered to investigate and prosecute such matters.
However, speaking to the people’s insight on Tuesday, Mr. Philip Nweze accused NAPTIP officials of working in concert with the implicated police officers to obstruct the recovery of his grandson.
According to him, both NAPTIP and officials of the Ministry of Women Affairs are now claiming that his sister is 37 years old and, as such, has the right to sell her child without the family’s consent.
“Is it because police officers were involved in this very case that it is now right and legal that my sister, being 37 years old, can sell her child?” he asked.
Recounting his recent encounter with the Commissioner for Women Affairs and NAPTIP officials in Abakaliki, Mr. Nweze lamented that the most troubling part was being told by the Commissioner that his nephew is now considered a government child and has been named after Governor Francis Ogbonnia Nwifuru.
He said, “I went to NAPTIP after they took over the case from NSCDC. When I got there, I narrated how everything happened, but what I’m seeing a few days after they took over the case is that all of them – police, NSCDC, NAPTIP and even the Ministry of Women Affairs have compromised.
“NAPTIP was trying to tell me that my sister is 37 years old and she has the right and consent to give up the child. Is my sister a lunatic, or doesn’t she have family members? And even if she has the right to give up the child, where is the child?”
He questioned whether the police officers who abducted his sister in Afikpo and secretly brought her to Abakaliki—while the family searched for her for over three months—ever handed the child over to a motherless babies’ home after she gave birth on June 8 and was discharged on June 11.
He said, “Did they get the consent of the family that she could not raise the child, so that anyone coming to adopt that child will do all the necessary documentations to take that child?
“But they did not do that. What if they have sold my nephew for ritual purposes? Why will somebody pay some policemen N25 million to get a baby, when they could have used less than N5 million to adopt a baby legally through a proper channel?
“The policemen have sold the child and (the child) is nowhere to be found. What they’re now doing is bribing all the officials in various institutions to compromise the case and force my family to silence. I promise them that it will not happen as long as I am still breathing. When has it become legal for a woman to sell her child or police to sell babies and share the money with the mother?”
Mr. Nweze added that their only hope of recovering the child now lies in the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who, according to him, has directed the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annexe in Enugu to investigate the case and report back to his office.
“I was asked to bring N200,000 to the Force CID Annexe, Enugu, before my petition to the AIG in charge can be accepted. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that kind of money. But a few days ago, I was invited to come to Enugu on Wednesday, to make a statement on the matter, that the IG has directed that the matter should be investigated, courtesy of SaharaReporters’ reports,” he said.
Accusing the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development of being compromised, Mr. Nweze stated that the Head of Child Development, Mr. Emmanuel Ngwuda, was the first to approach the NSCDC, asserting that Nwanneka Nweze had the right to consent to the sale of her child.
He said, “Then the commissioner for Women Affairs told me that I have the voice record that the child is a government child now and has been named after the state governor, Mr Francis Nwifuru.
“My reply was that they don’t have any right to name my nephew after Governor Nwifuru. The child is not a child of a mentally ill woman on the street, and we are not related to Governor Nwifuru. However, even if they have named the child after Governor Nwifuru, where is the child being kept if they have not used the child for business?
“In short, the NAPTIP officials in Abakaliki are just telling me that I should forgive, that they have granted my sister bail. That it is a bailable offence. They first asked me to come and bail her so that when she runs away tomorrow, or when they kill her, they will hold me responsible and close the case.”
The Ebonyi State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has denied any involvement in the alleged sale of Nwanneka’s newborn baby for ₦25 million.
In a statement issued by the command’s Public Relations Officer, ASC I Emmanuella Ibeneme, the agency dismissed the claims as “malicious and unfounded.”
Ibeneme explained that a preliminary investigation was conducted with due professionalism and that the case was subsequently transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the statutory body empowered to handle such matters.
She further refuted allegations that a legal officer within the NSCDC had participated in or facilitated child trafficking, describing the report as “misleading, malicious, baseless, and defamatory.”
Efforts by the people’s insight to obtain comments from key officials proved unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.
SP Uche Loveth did not answer phone calls, while the Ebonyi State Police Command remained unresponsive. The Command’s spokesperson, DSP Ukandu Joshua, also declined to respond to calls and failed to reply to a text message seeking police reaction.
Attempts to reach representatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) similarly yielded no response, as their lines were unavailable for contact.
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