Woman Bags Three Years For Stealing One-month-old Baby

For stealing a one-month-old baby in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, a 39-year-old woman, Mercy Momoh, was on Monday sentenced to three-year imprisonment.

Momoh was tried and convicted by an Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court on a count of stealing a baby.

The police prosecutor, Sergeant Samson Osobu, told the court that the convict committed the offence on September 20 at Ekiti State Government Secretariat in Ado-Ekiti.

Osobu said, “She stole a month-old baby belonging to Funmilayo Dada. The offence contravened section 371 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”

The prosecutor, while presenting the fact of the case before the court, said Momoh confessed to the crime.

He said, “Momoh saw the nursing mother with her baby and deceived her that the Ekiti State Empowerment Programme was disbursing money to less-privileged people at the State Secretariat.

“The nursing mother followed Momoh to the place. On getting there, Momoh told the nursing mother to help her to buy a recharge card. She asked Dada to leave her baby and phone in her care while she quickly went on the errand. But when the nursing mother came back, she did not see Momoh and the baby.

“The embattled and embittered nursing mother reported the matter at the police station and through information, the woman was apprehended by the police and the baby was given back to the mother,” the prosecutor said.

Momoh pleaded guilty to the charge.

In his judgment, the Chief Magistrate, Mr Adesoji Adegboye, sentenced Momoh to three years in jail.

The chief magistrate, however, gave her N100,000 option of fine.