The police command in Niger says it arrested a 51-year-old woman, Blessing Jeremiah, for attempting to steal a three-year-old girl, Rahanat Abubakar, in Niger and sell her to a buyer identified as Mrs Ejima.

Mrs Ejima had already paid her N530,000, police said, adding that the 51-year-old suspect stole the child from her parents in the Tudun-Natsira area of Minna.

The suspect was arrested as she was about to board a bus to transport the child to Nnewi in Anambra.

Confirming the incident on Friday, the police spokesman in Niger, Abiodun Wasiu, said the victim had been reunited with her parents.

“On October 25, 2023, at about 1930hrs, one Mrs Blessing Jeremiah, 51 years of Keteren-Gwari, Minna was seen at luxurious bus park around Maitumbi bye-pass Minna, in an attempt to board a bus to travel with a three-year-old girl suspected to have been abducted,” the police officer stated.

Mr Wasiu added, “Police operatives attached to Tudun-Wada Division were immediately drafted to the park and arrested the suspect with the girl child. During interrogation, she confessed that she took the child named Rahanat Abubakar from a compound in the Tudun-Natsira area of Minna on the same date at about 1800hrs.”

The police spokesman added, “She claimed that she intended to take the child to one Mrs Ejima at Nnewi, Anambra state, who contracted her to get a female child for her at the rate of N530,000, while a sum of N230,000 was recovered from the suspect.”

The officer added, “However, the child has been reunited with her family. The case is under investigation at SCID Minna as effort is ongoing to apprehend the said Mrs Ejima.”