Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested a woman, identified simply as Joy, for allegedly abducting two infants in a desperate attempt to replace her deceased twins and conceal the tragedy from her partner and family ahead of a planned child dedication ceremony. The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, disclosed the details in a video shared on Facebook on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, where witnesses and the suspect spoke while facing away from the camera.
According to Edafe, the case came to light after the command received a disturbing report about a missing four-month-old baby allegedly taken by a woman who pretended to be a customer at a groundnut-selling point. “About three days ago, we had a very disturbing report about a woman who came in and said she wanted to buy groundnuts. While they were looking for the groundnuts for her, she somehow misled the 14-year-old who was holding a baby and she went away with a four-month-old baby,” Edafe said.
During the course of investigation, police discovered that the suspect had been scouting for children weeks before the latest abduction and had successfully stolen another infant earlier. Edafe revealed that the suspect had approached a roadside woman selling tickets, pretended to be asking about a house help, and established a relationship with an 18-year-old girl who had a child. “Then one day she said, ‘Let me help you carry this baby and buy sweets from there.’ She ran away,” the police spokesman narrated.
During interrogation, the suspect, who identified herself as Joy, confessed that she resorted to stealing the children after allegedly losing her own twin babies. She said she had given birth to twins, but tragedy struck when the children were just one month and two weeks old. “I left them to go to the market. Before I came back, they had used cold water to bathe the twins and they both died,” she said in Pidgin English.
Joy explained that her husband had already invited relatives, friends and well-wishers for the children’s dedication ceremony before the twins died. Fearing embarrassment and the potential collapse of her relationship, she decided to abduct a boy and a girl to pass them off as her surviving twins. “My husband had already invited people for child dedication, so I decided to steal two children, a boy and a girl,” she confessed. She admitted that she stole the first baby about three weeks ago and later stole the second child on Saturday because the dedication ceremony was scheduled for the following day. The stolen children had already been dedicated before her arrest.
The Delta State Police Command confirmed that both infants were rescued and reunited with their families. The suspect is currently in custody as investigations and legal proceedings continue. Edafe expressed shock at the bizarre circumstances surrounding the case, noting that the incident had renewed calls for parents and guardians to exercise greater vigilance. “Tell me how a mother would give her child to a stranger to carry a three-month-old child,” he questioned. “She was trying to manufacture twins in her own way. She kept them in her house in Uzere.”
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