How Couple Sold Their 5-Month-Old Baby to Start a Business

A 30-year-old dad of two, Okwuchukwu Ibekwe, and his wife, Oluchi, reportedly sold their five-month-old son, Chidera, to a woman in Anambra identified as Chinelo for N500,000 in order to start a business. Sounding unapologetic, Ibekwe told New Telegraph:

“It was an agreement between my wife and I. I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to sell our baby. My wife and I decided to sell the baby and used the money we make from it to start a business so as to better our lives. We also planned to have another baby to replace Chidera.

What my wife and I were going through was unbearable. I used to work as a motor mechanic at Ladipo Auto Market. The building housing my shop was sold by the owner. I had no other source of living. Someone gave me a commercial bus to drive, but after a while, the bus caught fire and got burnt.

It rendered me jobless; I didn’t have any other means of livelihood to carter for my children.

Chinelo gave me N250,000 and my wife N150,000. It was my wife who took the baby to Chinelo in Ihiala, Anambra State.”

He added that his wife came up with the idea of using Chidera “to borrow money from Chinelo” and their initial agreement was to be paid N500,000. The matter, however, got to the police after the couple had a disagreement on December 8, 2015 and Oluchi went to the Iba Police station to report that her husband sold their baby.

See Also

Instagram Launches ‘Teen Accounts’ With Restrictive Features | Details

READ ALSO: See Why South African Woman Tried Selling Her Baby Boy Online For 5,000 Rand

Ibekwe was arrested and later transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office, Lagos Command, Ikeja, where investigation was launched into the matter.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said that the buyer, Chinelo, is still at large with the baby, and efforts were ongoing to arrest her and rescue the baby. He added that Ibekwe would be charged to court soon.