The battle over the custody of the baby between these persons has led to the arrest, detention and prosecution of a social critic in the state, Mrs. Chinyere Nwele, who alleged that the baby had been sold. Nwele was allegedly detained in police custody for 22 days before her arraignment and remand in the Abakaliki Correctional Centre where she is currently languishing.

Inspector Charity Agwu, who rescued the child from the mentally deranged mother, is facing orderly room trial at the police headquarters, Abakaliki, for “being stubborn” on the matter and insisting that she must know the whereabouts of the child she rescued and wants to take care of pending when the family of the mentally challenged woman would be identified so that the family can take the child.

Inspector Agwu had reportedly faced orderly trials on the matter for more than three times and may lose her job after the trial, which is being handled by some senior police officers of the command.

It all started on December 2, 2022. Agwu, who was a sergeant then, saw something wrapped in a black bag by a mentally challenged woman and suspected that something that needed to be salvaged must be inside the bag. She immediately alighted from the motorcycle conveying her to know how to go about it.

The policewoman approached the mad woman as a caring mother of six children: five boys and a girl. She pleaded with the woman to release the baby to her, promising to take good care of the child.

After much persuasion by Agwu and passersby who had gathered around them, the mentally challenged woman handed over the child to her. Before leaving, Agwu, again, promised to take good care of the baby, pending when contact would be established with her family for collection of the baby.

She then took the baby to the police clinic inside the police headquarters in Abakaliki for medical attention following the bad state of the child’s health. While in the police clinic, a senior police woman surfaced and requested to take over the medical treatment and custody of the child. Of course, Agwu refused on the ground that she had not documented the matter to deal with any issue that may come out in future.

The senior police officer mounted pressure on Agwu and brought three more officers into the matter. The officers allegedly rained abuses on her and threatened to deal with her for disobeying her seniors in the job.

Following this, Agwu released the baby after making a documentary on it and insisted that the baby must be taken to the motherless babies’ home for proper care. She left the baby in the motherless babies’ home and came back the following day to see the baby but was not allowed to do so by the authorities of the home who told her that the then Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Chinwe Okah, who is now Commissioner for Budget Planning and Research, asked them not to allow her to see the baby because she was not the biological mother.

Agwu sent someone to visit the motherless babies’ home to know if the baby was still there but the person returned and told her that the baby was no longer in the home. (Daily Sun)

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