Police officer arrested for allegedly kidnapping and selling baby for N600,000

- A police corporal in Imo state is presently in custody for allegedly snatching a child from a woman

- He allegedly sold the child for the sum of N600,000 before he was caught

- He has been dismissed from Nigeria Police Force while he awaits trial in court

A police corporal Uche Odoemena, popularly known as Prince, has been arrested by officers of the Nigeria Police Force Imo state command.

Unnamed sources told The Punch on Thursday, January 19 that the police corporal, who is currently held at the federal prisons, was arrested in Okigwe and taken to Owerri on Wednesday, January 18.

The unnamed sources also claimed that Odoemena, who is married to a police sergeant identified as Cynthia Odoemena attached to the command headquarters in Owerri, was an alleged habitual human trafficker.

READ ALSO: Police deny killing Biafrans on solidarity march for Trump

The police officer had allegedly snatched a newborn baby from a mother in Anambra state at gunpoint and sold the child for N600,000.

Upon the nursing mother’s complaint, the commissioner of police, who was enraged at the development, had allegedly ordered that the corporal be dismissed immediately and be prosecuted accordingly.

At the time of filing its report, The Punch reports that efforts made to get the reaction from the command’s public relations officer Andrew Enwerem proved abortive as he neither picked the call put to his mobile phone number nor responded to the text message Sent to him.

But another police source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident.

He said that the police corporal had be dismissed after being tried in the police orderly room by the CP’s instruction and remanded at federal prisons, Owerri, after he was arraigned in court on Thursday morning by the police.

The police source said: “He has been dismissed after the CP ordered that he be tried immediately in the orderly room. He is no longer a police officer that is why we can arraign him in court.”

READ ALSO: Full speech of American President Donald Trump at inauguration

Meanwhile, the Nasarawa state police command said they have rescued 12 children from a suspected child trafficker.

The man, identified as Nuhu Adams who denied the police's claims, stated that he is an evangelist.

Parading the suspect, the Nasarawa state commissioner of police Abubakar Bello said his men received intelligence report that the suspect had in his custody eight children between the ages of six and 17.