Police officer, Two women arrested over missing baby

In Lagos state, the police have arrested a Police Inspector and two women because of a missing baby.

Samuel Ukpabio, a police inspector who works for the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), is accused of taking a baby boy from his mother, Fortune Obafuoso, 35, by force.

Obafuoso told Punch that when she had her baby on Friday, December 23, 2022, a police officer arrested her and took her and her children, including the new baby, to the SCID on the suspicion that she wanted to sell the baby, which she denied. The scared mother said that while she was being questioned by Ukpabio, her baby boy was taken away from her and given to a woman she didn’t know.

She said that after that, the officer gave her N15,000 and told her not to come back for the baby. She also said that he sent her another N170,000 after she asked for her child over and over again.

After she complained, the situation was looked into, and the police officer and his helpers were arrested.

SP Benjamin Hundeyin, a spokesman for the state police command, said that their arrest was true.

“Two ladies have been arrested; the inspector (Ukpabio) mentioned the person he gave the baby to and we arrested that person. The person is in detention now. During interrogation, that person mentioned that she gave the baby to another person and the person has been arrested and detained.
Both of them have not denied collecting the baby but we still don’t know where the baby is. We are still working and by the end of tomorrow (Wednesday), we should be able to tell where they took the baby to. So, we have a total of three people in detention now; the inspector, and the two ladies.”