Delta Mother Jailed After Selling Baby for N1.5m

A disturbing case of child trafficking masked by a fabricated criminal report has ended in the arrest of a mother in Delta State. Rita Ughale, a resident of Kokori in Ethiope East Local Government Area, is currently in police custody after confessing to selling her two-month-old infant. The revelation came after a high-pressure investigation by the Delta State Police Command, which initially began as a desperate search for a kidnapped child.

The saga began on the evening of December 15, 2025, when Ughale arrived at the Ekpan Police Division in a state of apparent distress. She told officers a harrowing tale of a violent robbery. According to her initial statement, she was traveling in a commercial tricycle when armed men intercepted the vehicle and forcibly snatched her baby from her arms before fleeing into the night.

The gravity of the report prompted an immediate and massive response from the police hierarchy. The Divisional Police Officer for Ekpan, CSP Labe Joseph, mobilized a search and rescue team to comb the area. Law enforcement resources were diverted to track down the alleged “tricycle bandits” in what was treated as a top-priority abduction case.

However, as the investigation progressed, the “grieving” mother’s narrative began to show significant cracks. Detectives noted several inconsistencies in her account of the robbery’s location and the sequence of events. Her suspicious demeanor under questioning led investigators to pivot their strategy, moving from treating her as a victim to viewing her as a person of interest.

Under intensive interrogation, Ughale’s facade eventually crumbled. She admitted to the police that the robbery never happened and that the kidnap report was a carefully staged ruse. The true motive was far more transactional; she had negotiated the sale of her own child to a couple for the sum of One Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N1,500,000).

Following the confession, police operatives acted swiftly to locate the buyers. The trail led to 39-year-old Osas Omijie and 30-year-old Judith Omijie. In a successful tactical operation, the police arrested the couple and rescued the two-month-old infant from their possession. The baby was found to be in good physical condition and has since been moved to a place of safety.

The Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, confirmed the breakthrough in a press statement on Friday. He highlighted the professional intuition of the investigating officers who refused to take the initial report at face value. Edafe emphasized that the successful rescue of the child was a direct result of the police’s refusal to ignore the red flags in Ughale’s story.

All three suspects—the biological mother and the purchasing couple—remain in police custody. Authorities are now working to determine if this was an isolated incident or part of a wider child-trafficking syndicate. Efforts have been intensified to identify and arrest any other intermediaries or accomplices who may have facilitated the illegal sale or helped plan the false police report.

The case has sparked outrage across Delta State, drawing attention to the rising concerns regarding “baby factories” and the illegal sale of infants. Legal experts suggest that Ughale faces a double-edged sword of prosecution: one for the illegal sale of a human being and another for the serious offense of providing false information to public officers, which wasted critical government resources.

The police have used this incident to warn members of the public against engaging in illegal adoptions or human trafficking. SP Edafe reiterated that the command will continue to apply the full weight of the law to protect the most vulnerable members of society. For now, the focus remains on the welfare of the infant as the judicial process begins for those who viewed the child as a mere commodity.