Baby for sale, 250k, Sold!

Daniel Barnney, a Liberian national is presently cooling his heels in police custody somewhere in Lagos for allegedly selling his 9-month-old son to a lady identified as Ekah Richard, 43, for the sum of N250,000.

Sources say Barnney’s Nigerian wife Ijeoma Ndoku had earlier raised an alarm over her husband’s attempt to sell their son and flee to Ghana with the proceeds.

Continuing, Ijeoma claimed that she had not been in good terms with Barnney in recent times as they have been quarrelling over her disapproval to send their son Emmanuel to his aunt who she has never met before.

Ijeoma said Barnney fled with their son on their way to the grocery store and she subsequently raised an alarm and moments later the police apprehended him and recovered their baby from Richard at Mile 2 on February 12.

Barnney who accused his wife for abandoning their child is now telling the officers of the Festac Police Station all he knows about the child sale alongside, one Pastor Samuel Osavitu and a worker at an orphanage, Alhaji Sunkanmi Adamu.

Reacting to Barnney’s claims of abandoning the child, Ijeoma said;

“It’s a lie! I didn’t abandon my baby. He said he wanted to hand the baby over to his aunt. I said it was okay since his aunt was now in Nigeria. I said it will give me opportunity to look for a job and support the family because he has not been taking care of us.

“For over three months, he has been saying he does not have money to take care of me and my baby but he usually had money to buy drinks and cigarettes. He could not even bring out N150 for me to buy pampers for our baby. Even when I wanted to take the baby to the hospital, I usually went and borrowed money; other times, our neighbours will give me money to cater for the baby.

“He used to get drunk and vomit. When I complained, he would bring out iron rod and hit it on my head. I fell down once, tried to go and open the door, but he dragged me back.

“I didn’t know his plan was to sell our baby. I said I wanted to see his aunt. He said if the aunt knows that I am around, she wouldn’t collect the baby. He asked me if I wanted the baby to die, I said no”, she said.

Ijeoma informed that she got wind of Barnney’s intention to sell their son from his boss.

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“She (the boss) told me that Daniel was planning to sell my son for N150,000. She said that Daniel said after selling the baby, he would leave for Ghana. I didn’t believe her.

“The woman said I should come back around 4pm, so that I would hear the story from some of her assistants. I told Daniel’s friend. He doubted the story too, so he followed me.

“It was in his presence that the woman told us everything. She said she became curious and concerned after she noticed Daniel was always with the baby. When she asked, Daniel told her that I abandoned the baby and ran away. She asked for my number, so that she could speak to me, but Daniel refused. That was when she knew Daniel was lying.

“I told her that Daniel told me that the baby was with his aunt. She said that was part of the reason she withheld his salary,” Ijeoma said.

Recounting how Barnney tricked her into taking their child out for shopping Ijeoma said her husband who has not been in good terms with her for sometime called that he was coming to see his son on January 29 saying he wanted to buy some things for him.

Unknown to her, Barnney had the intention of absconding with the child and he did just that the moment they both alighted from the motorcycle (Okada) that they both took to a grocery store.

When he was caught, Barney, 32, who admitted to have received the sum of N250,000 from Richard through Adamu said the cash was handed over to him to start a business.

He also refuted the allegation that he sold the baby claiming that his wife abandoned the child and since he couldn’t cater for the child alone, he had to take the baby to an orphanage home.

On his part Richard who adopted the child claimed she never knew the process was illegal while Osavitu, who said he was only trying help Richard denied being part of the plot to steal the baby.

“I have known the orphanage guy for almost nine years. He’s a good man. He’s the manager at the orphanage. I used to go to the orphanage to preach there.” Osavitu said.

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