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Maria Ekanem, who is a  20-year-old secondary school drop out from Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State, had told newsmen yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, that poverty as well as lack of where she could stay after she had given birth made her to sell her two weeks old baby girl for a pantry sum of N20,000.

The hapless Maria, who was arrested by the police along with five other accomplices, said her boyfriend who was responsible for her pregnancy, asked her to go and abort the baby. But she said a doctor helped her during the pregnancy by giving her free antenatal care as well as free food until she had given birth to her baby. This, according to her story, prompted her to agree without much ado to sell the baby when arrangements were made to sell it.

Paraded along with Maria were a 55-year-old medical doctor, Okokon Offiong Okoho, who is the proprietor of Evangel Clinic,of 2, Atu Street; a 70-year-old matron of Sadatoe Maternity located at Umoh Street and a nurse at the maternity who allegedly made the plans to sell the girl to an Abuja-based lady who is now said to be on the run by the police.

However, the already concluded plans to sell the two weeks old baby girl was leaked to the police authority by a Senior Secondary Two girl of NYSC Demonstration Secondary School located in Calabar, Maria Elemi, whose parents Maria was living  with after she had delivered the baby.

According to her narration: “When I came back from school on Monday, Maria told me she wanted to take the baby to the parents of the boy who impregnated her since she can no longer cope with taking care of the baby,” she said. Maria said when they got to Fuller by Inyang Street in Calabar South, they met Mrs Elemi and her daughter in an SUV car, adding that Maria gave the girl to the matron who handed her over to the buyer from Abuja.

She had said:  “The woman gave Maria N20,000 and asked her to pay the nurse at the Evangel Clinic and use the rest for herself.” The girl said she immediately became suspicious when the driver of the SUV told the woman who bought the baby that her husband said she should take her to the airport to enable her catch a flight to Abuja . “I started wondering why they should take the girl to the airport when the boyfriend to Maria and her parents live here in Calabar,” Maria had stated.

Cross River Police Public Relations Officer, ASP John Eluu, who paraded Maria along with the doctor and the conniving Matron, told newsmen that when the information got to the police at the Federal Housing Police Station, detectives on duty swung into action and arrested the medical suspects. Eluu said investigations were continuing to enable them apprehend the buyer of the baby girl, who is  now said to be on the run.