Police arrest Abia’s most wanted child trafficker

A notorious child trafficker in Abia, Mrs. Mma Achumba, who has been on the wanted list of various security agencies has been arrested in Akwa Ibom where she has been hiding. The police described Achumba as Abia’s most wanted child trafficker and that she had evaded arrest for over five years.

Achumba whose illegal maternity home at Umunkpeyi in Isialangwa South Local Government Area of Abia State had been raided several times by security agencies has been linked with many child trafficking incidents.

A secret baby factory which was being manned by her son at a remote village in Olokoro in Umuahia South was last year demolished by the state government which also proscribed all maternity homes in the state as part of measures to clamp down on ‘baby factory’ menace in its domain.

Parading the suspect on Friday at the Police Officers Mess, Umuahia,the Commissioner of Police, Joshak Habila, said one Ogechi Kalu from Ebonyi State had reported that a couple she was living with conspired and sold her six-month old baby boy to the suspect for N150,000.

The CP said the sold baby was later recovered from an old woman at Umunkpeyi while the suspect fled but was trailed to Akwa Ibom by detectives of the State’s Criminal Investigative Department .

Speaking with SUNDAY PUNCH, Kalu whose baby was sold alleged that the couple, Mr. and Mrs. Uchenna John, who employed her as house help conspired and sold her baby, Chisom, to the suspect.

According to her, the couple had told her that they were going to enrol the baby in a day-care centre and later returned to the house with bundles of money.

She said she suspected foul play when her baby’s whereabouts became an object of controversy, a development that made her raise the alarm.

“I saw them counting a huge sum of money, and they told me my baby was in school but I became afraid and started crying,” she said.

But the couple said they had no intention of selling the baby but only enrolled her in the maternity home to enable the mother who was their maid to return to school.

In an interview with our correspondent, the suspect denied operating an illegal maternity home, saying her maternity home was registered.

She denied any involvement with child trafficking and explained that she was only helping people who gave birth to children outside wedlock.