The Abia State Police has launched a massive manhunt for an alleged child thief identified as Uchenna, after he reportedly stole a four-month-old baby boy and gave the child to his girlfriend, Kelechi Uche.
The State Commissioner of Police, Habila Joshak, made this known while parading the girl at the command headquarters in Umuahia, stating that she was arrested by some members of the public at Osusu Aku community, where she had gone to look for buyers for the baby.
According to the CP, Uchenna and four other suspects who are still at large, stole the boy from his mother at gunpoint on August 21, at Ntigha Uzo in the Obingwa Local Government Area of the state and later handed him over to Uche to find a buyer.
The lady reportedly drew the attention of some members of the community five days later when she went to scout for buyers when the baby continued to cry uncontrollably and the people were surprised when she would not breast feed him.
When the suspicious people asked her to breast feed the baby if she was his biological mother, she could only mumble incoherently and her unsatisfactory answer further raised their suspicion and she was nabbed.
Fearing that she could be killed, Uche confessed to her captors who handed her over to the police and upon interrogation, the suspect said the child was stolen by her boyfriend, Uchenna, and four others and given to her to sell.
The CP said the suspect also explained that the baby was first kept in the house of one Love Chinkata, also on the run, before she collected him to sell.