A suspected member of a child-stealing and trafficking syndicate in Oyo State, Adejoke Popoola, has confessed to selling a newborn boy and a set of twins before stealing 19 other children for onward sale.
Popoola, who spoke to journalists at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters in Ibadan on Monday, said she had been involved in the alleged activities since October 2024.
She claimed that she sold the twins to a clinic in Ogeere for ₦300,000, while she sometimes received between ₦80,000 and ₦120,000 for other children.
“God blessed me with the gift of pregnancy. Anytime a man has sex with me twice, I get pregnant, and it is always difficult to abort,” she said.
Popoola, who said she had seven children of her own, also admitted to allegedly stealing children by posing as a prospective tenant.
According to her, she would visit homes under the guise of looking for accommodation and take children whenever their parents were not around.
“I steal babies. I will go to their place and say I want to rent a house. Then, if I do not see anyone, if I see their children, I will just steal their children,” she said.
She further claimed that a woman she worked with at Ogeere Market taught her how to steal children.
Popoola also alleged that she sometimes posed as a spiritualist, targeting parents with children living with disabilities by promising to help them before allegedly taking other children.
She recounted how she allegedly stole three-year-old Ifakunle Ifagbenro during an Egungun festival in Oyo Town on June 29.
She said she volunteered to carry the boy during the procession before picking him up, putting him on her back and fleeing with him.
The suspect claimed that six of the 19 children she allegedly kidnapped had died, while 13 were still alive.
The allegation came as police continued investigating a suspected interstate child-trafficking network uncovered in Oyo State.
The Commissioner of Police, Abimbola Olugbenga, said the investigation began with a petition dated July 29, 2026, but expanded after Ifakunle disappeared during the masquerade festival.
He said Popoola was arrested on August 4, and her statement provided a major breakthrough.
Olugbenga said the investigation led detectives to Ogun and Delta states, where additional suspects were arrested, and children allegedly stolen from Oyo State were rescued.
He said the command had so far rescued 17 children and arrested seven suspects.
The police boss also said investigators uncovered allegations that some children who died while in the custody of suspected traffickers were sold to suspected ritualists.
This led to the arrest of Muritala Fasasi, an Alfa, and Yakubu Azeez, a herbalist.
The six children the police said died were identified as Musharaf Lawal Tajudeen, two; Greatness Adeagbo, five; Sainat Amoo, two; Taiwo Usman, two; Daniel Solomon Olayinka, seven; and Miracle Olaniyi, four.
Olugbenga urged parents and guardians whose children recently went missing to visit the command headquarters in Eleyele, Ibadan, to identify the rescued children.
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