command(the biblical Solomon here) is currently battling to ascertain the real parents of a baby stolen from Onitsha in 2010 as two families are laying claim to the same baby.
The baby, Emmanuel
Chimaobi Adinna Okoro, who was born on 9th August 2010, was allegedly stolen
from his parents who reside at Awada-Obosi, a suburb of Onitsha in Anambra State by a lady who pretended to be his aunt.
However, when the news of the disappearance of little
Emmanuel got to his
parents, Mr. and Mrs
Chinedu Okoro, who were not in the house when the incident took place, immediately reported the case to the Awada police station and the police began
the search for the stolen
baby who was at the time of his theft, 18 months old.
The efforts of the police paid off when a suspect who gave her name as Ngozi Okeke was arrested as she allegedly came back to
Onitsha from Imo State to steal more babies.
On learning of the arrest, the family of the stolen, Emmanuel approached the
police with their house help from whom the little baby was stolen and identified the suspect on the spot.
However, following the
alleged reluctance of the police to release the baby to them, counsel to the family of the stolen baby, Mr.Ignatius Umennabude,
petitioned the Imo State
Commissioner of Police,
demanded that the police release the child to his parents since they have provided necessary documents concerning the child.
Vanguard gathered that the case took a different
dimension when the parents of the baby went to the Imo State police command to
claim their baby, but were denied access to him on the ground that another woman was also claiming the same
baby.
The baby in question is
presently in the custody of the social welfare officer in the Imo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
According to Umennabude, there was confusion when the Deputy Police Commissioner, DCP, in
charge of Criminal
Investigation Department, CID, in Imo State told the family of Emmanuel that there was another lady who
had lodged a complaint that she gave birth to a baby boy who she left under the care of a certain nurse who was
at that time being detained by police in connection with
child trafficking.
The woman also told the police that the stolen child, who
had been identified by the Okoro family in Onitsha as their son, was also her son,
noting that she gave birth to the baby while still in school and decided to leave him
with the nurse to help her finish her education.
She was said to have told the police that when she came back from school, she
could not find her baby and the nurse.
Though the suspect was said to have confirmed that the little Emmanuel belongs to the Okoro family, she, however, could not account
for the whereabouts of the son of the other woman in her custody.
The Imo State command
was said to be insisting that there must be a DNA test to ascertain the true parentage
of the stolen baby.
Source...
http://www.vanguardngr.com
