According to SaharaReporters, the police officers involved in the alleged trafficking and sale of a baby boy for N25 million in Ebonyi State have been advised to negotiate with the family of Mr. Nweze Philip Obasi, whose child was reportedly sold under suspicious circumstances.
The officers involved include two Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs), the State CID and O/C Medical, as well as SP Loveth Uche, the officer in charge of the Juvenile and Women Centre (JWC), alongside two inspectors and several civilian collaborators.
According to multiple sources who spoke on Wednesday, ACP God Is Great, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex, Enugu, gave the advice on Tuesday during a meeting convened to address the matter.
The meeting was scheduled to take place with the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of the FCID Annex after months of investigation.
However, the AIG was reportedly absent, and a heated exchange ensued when SP Loveth Uche accused ACP Bright, the O/C Medical, of being aware of the illegal baby transaction.
During the confrontation, SP Uche reportedly presented a video clip showing the moment she handed ₦700,000 to Ms. Nwanneka Nweze inside the police clinic. She also reportedly tendered phone recordings of her conversations with Nwanneka, which she said she secretly made inside the clinic.
In response, the O/C Medical reportedly denied any involvement, expressing anger that SP Uche had recorded their conversation without consent. She reportedly questioned how a fellow officer could enter the police clinic and begin taking videos and recordings without her knowledge, describing Uche’s actions as sinister and unethical.
“The OC medical was furious, because SP Loveth criminally recorded all the video evidence,” a police source revealed on Wednesday.
The PPRO, who is part of the investigation team, reportedly told SP Uche that everyone involved in the case would be charged with conspiracy.
“So the PPRO, whose team is investigating the matter, told her that everyone involved in the case is going down for conspiracy in the child trafficking,” the source said.
The source disclosed that the complainant, Mr. Philip Nweze, is now demanding the reinstatement of his wife’s rank, which was allegedly illegally demoted after she exposed a child trafficking case involving the same SP Loveth Uche.
The officer had reportedly sold a child that Mr. Nweze’s wife had rescued from a mentally challenged woman, prompting her to speak out before facing retaliation.
“However, the IPO reminded him that he never complained about the wife’s demotion in the petition to the Inspector General of Police, which they’re treating. The IPO advised him to encourage his wife to call a retired former Commissioner of Police in Ebonyi State, who allegedly conspired with SP Loveth, accusing her of insubordination that led to his wife’s demotion,” the source said.
“But the policewoman, who was present, insisted that she would never call the retired police commissioner, maintaining her innocence in the accusations of insubordination because she demanded the whereabouts of a child she rescued from a mentally challenged mother.”
“She vowed that if she did not insist on pursuing justice in her case, she would rather resign from the police service,” the source said.
Another source revealed that the IPO, ACP God is Great, who appeared to have been debriefed, told the complainant that his sister, Ms. Nwanneka, had admitted to accepting N700,000. And that if he wanted to charge the case to court, all the police personnel involved would be charged alongside his sister.
“The PPRO advised the complainant that since he had seen the couple the police gave his nephew to, he should settle the case, considering the officers involved because of another time,” the source said.
Sources disclosed hat the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) advised the complainant, Mr. Philip Nweze, to settle the case with the accused officers, warning him that failure to do so could implicate him as well.
When contacted, Mr. Nweze later confirmed that all parties were instructed to negotiate a resolution, with the case adjourned for a final meeting with the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) at the FCID Annex, Enugu.
He said, “The case would have been concluded yesterday, but the AIG was not around. Now the issue is that my sister, the mother of the child, has openly said that she is not ready to take the child and raise him because our mother, who had been taking care of the two other children, has died.
“So the IPO said they are giving us a chance now to go and negotiate and talk. All the people involved in the case, including the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, which gave out the child without proper documentation; my family and other senior police officers, two Assistant Commissioners of Police, who have been found culpable in the case.”
“So the IPO was telling us that if they do the proper thing, and since my sister admitted to collecting N700,000, she will also go down with the police officers involved in the crime. So this is what they told us yesterday,” Nweze narrated.
The case involves Susannah Nwanneka Nweze, whose newborn baby boy was allegedly sold for N25 million by some police officers in the Ebonyi State Police Command.
The family had filed a petition against four officers of the Nigeria Police Force, including personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state, over alleged conspiracy, abduction, child trafficking, unlawful arrest, and felony.
