The Oyo State Police Command arrested a middle-aged woman on Monday as part of a crackdown on a child-stealing and trafficking network. She told investigators that she sold her newborn male twins for N300,000 and stole other children for suspected baby factory operators in Oyo State.
The suspect, Adejoke Popoola, also known as Orente Alagbo, said in a video posted by Oyo Affairs that she had stolen at least 19 children and received between N80,000 and N120,000 for each child she allegedly supplied.
According to her, she became involved in the alleged operation after meeting a woman she identified as Oluwakemi, who she said operated a ‘baby industry’ and supplied children to buyers in Lagos.
“God gifted me pregnancies. If a man has sex with me two times, I won’t be able to abort it. I sold children to Oluwakemi two times. I sold a one-year-old son, and I sold newly born male twins to her last year,” she said.
Adejoke said she sold the twins after the man responsible for the pregnancy refused to accept them.
“The twins are male. I sold them newly born. She (Oluwakemi) gave me N300,000. She also used to sell babies that I supply to her; she has a baby industry and sells them to Lagos. If I give them any child, they will give me N80,000 or N120,000,” Mrs Popoola alleged.
The suspect also described how she stole children abducted during public gatherings, including an Egungun festival in Oyo.
She said that in June, she travelled to Oyo after telling a commercial motorcyclist she wanted to go to the location of an Egungun festival, although she claimed she did not know the area.
According to her, after the Egungun procession began, she approached the mother of a three-year-old child named Ifakunle Ifagbenro and offered to carry the child for her.
“The child said he’s not going to stay, but I told her mum that I should hold her for her. So I followed them around. Around evening, I ran away with the child,” she stated. She claimed she received N900,000 for selling Ifagbenro.
Ms Popoola also claimed that she sometimes targeted families by offering to help children with disabilities.
“I used to exchange children, too. If they bring a disabled child, I’ll tell them that I’ll help them to heal, and I’ll go and pick another person’s child and give it to them.
Ms Popoola said she had previously sold herbs and became connected to the suspected baby-trafficking operation after her shop was gutted by fire in January 2024.
She said she regularly sold herbs in areas around Ogere and supplied a woman she identified as operating a clinic to pregnant women.
“Later, they told me that instead of me suffering around, I should be stealing babies for them,” she said.
According to her, she was paid N80,000 for the first child she allegedly stole for the operators, while subsequent payments ranged between N80,000 and N120,000.
Oyo State Police Command noted that their investigation, which began with a petition, uncovered a wider network allegedly involved in the stealing, movement, sale and concealment of children.
The command said it had so far rescued 17 children and arrested seven suspects, including Mrs Popoola, while six other children were reported to have died while allegedly in the custody of their abductors.
The police also alleged that the investigation uncovered a link between the suspected child-trafficking operation and ritual activities, saying remains of children who died in custody were allegedly sold to suspected ritualists.
In the video, the husband of another arrested woman also recounted how his wife became linked to the investigation after she went to a facility where she was expecting to deliver a child.
He said his wife had been told that her sister operated a hospital where women could deliver their babies, and that he believed she was going there as part of what he described as a favour.
According to him, his wife went into labour and eventually delivered a baby at about 7pm on August 6.
He said he was later informed that the baby had died.
However, he said police subsequently contacted them after allegedly tracking a newborn baby to the house of a woman identified as Osana.
He said investigators told him that conversations on Osana’s phone had been traced and that they identified him as the father of the newborn.
“The police said they claimed that it was a prostitute who gave birth to the baby and ran away. They said they traced the conversation on Osana’s phone, and they found that I’m the father of the child,” the husband said.
