BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
THE Ebonyi State Police Command has arraigned a 40-year-old woman before a Magistrate’s Court for stealing a four-year-old boy in the state.
The woman, identified as Uzoamaka Sampson, was accused of stealing the child from his parents on April 24, 2021, at their residence near Eke Okposi market in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state.
The Point’s correspondent in Abakaliki gathered that the suspect, in a bid to sell the baby and make quick money, collected the sum of N800,000 from an Ondo State based woman, who had been in a childless marriage for 14 years.
The suspect reportedly collected the money in false pretence that she would assist the woman to adopt a baby from Catholic Reverend Sisters’ orphanage home in Aba.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Mathias Ezeh, who opposed a bail application, held that the offences were punishable under sections 516(A) and 419, both of Criminal Code Cap 33 Volume 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, 2009, as well as 33(i), and contrary to Section (3) of Ebonyi State Child Rights and other Related Matters Law 2010.
Ruling on the matter, marked, ‘MAB/336c/2021’, the trial Magistrate, Nnenna Onuoha, ordered the remand of the suspect in the Abakaliki Correctional Center for further prosecution, owing to the lack of competent jurisdiction of a Magistrate’s court to hear such matter.
She further ordered the transfer of the matter to the Department of Public Prosecution for further action.
The charge read, “That Uzoamaka Sampson ‘f’ and others now at large, on the 24th day of April 2021, at Eke Okposi market, Ohaozara, in the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: child stealing and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 516A(a) of the Criminal Code Cap 33 Volume 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, 2009.
“That you, Uzoamaka Sampson ‘f’ and others now at large on the same date, place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did unlawfully made away with a 4-year-old boy, named Salvation Godwin, without consent of his mother, Mrs Favor Godwin, and thereby committed offence punishable under Section 33(i) contrary to Section (3) of Ebonyi State Child Right and other related Matters Law, 2010.
“That you Uzoamaka Sampson ‘f’ sometime in the month of June 2020, at Okposi Ohaozara, in the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did fraudulently receive the sum of eight hundred thousand naira (N800,000) from one Josephine Orji on the pretence that you will assist her to adopt a baby from Catholic Reverend Sisters Orphanage home in Aba, knowing same to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 419 of the Criminal Code Cap 33 Volume 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, 2009.”
