A middle-aged woman simply identified as Salome has lost her one-year-old baby boy to a suspected child trafficker during a street fight with a revenue collector over N200 levy in Eke-Onuwa Market in Owerri, Imo State.
The woman, a petty trader who sells foodstuff in the market, reportedly engaged in the fight when the revenue collector, simply identified as Sunday asked her for N200 being an amount payable for the space she was occupying to sell.
Instead of paying the levy, Salome engaged the revenue collector in a fight to slug it out with them.
It was learnt that when the fight was about to begin, the woman decided to hand over her baby to unknown person who suddenly disappeared with the baby.
According to an eye-witness when the fight was over the woman could not see the man and the baby. “The man had walked away with the baby.”
This caused pandemonium in the market as traders organized themselves in search of the baby, but to no avail.
The eye-witness said that the mother of the baby was running helter skelter in the market asking passersby if they had seen the man she handed the baby over to.
“Nobody who sells in the market was able to identify the man and the whereabouts of the baby,” the witness lamented.
Meanwhile, three women were caught on camera stealing a stroller from a baby store – with one of them leaving behind her baby who is the apparent reason she needed the stroller.
