Nguyemen Mtomga was charged by the Police Command in Benue on Thursday with kidnapping and child trafficking and appeared before a Makurdi Chief Magistrate's Court.
The case was received at the Criminal Investigation Department in Makurdi from the Divisional Police Headquarters in Ugba, Logo LGA, via a letter with the number AR:3100BNS/LOG/VOL.1/409 dated December 17, according to the Police Prosecutor, Insp. Stella Ngbede.
According to Ngbede, the matter was reported to the Ugba Police Station by one Haycenth Iti of G.R.A. ll, Ugba, Logo LGA on December 15.
She said that the informant claimed his girlfriend, Nguyemen Mtomga of Mbate, Logo LGA, informed him she was expecting him sometime in January, but after five months he could find no evidence of pregnancy.
She further said that the accused took the informant to Gbagi Village, Ukum LGA, on November 7, and that on November 9, she contacted him to let him know she had put the newborn boy to sleep.
However, she said that on November 23, the defendant arrived back in Ugba with a son who was five months old.
According to the prosecutor, Nguyemen Mtomga, the accused, was detained during the police inquiry and afterwards confessed to the crime.
She further acknowledged that she left Ukum for Damsa village in Taraba State's Donga LGA and took the child from Winifred Kpachir there during the course of the investigation.
She said that the accused broke both the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Prohibition Act, 2006 and the Abduction, Hostage Taking, Kidnapping, Secret Cult, and Similar Activities Prohibition Law of Benue State, 2017.
However, no plea was accepted for lack of jurisdiction when the issue was discussed.
The case was postponed to January 2023 by Magistrate Chirtsy Ikpe, who remanded the defendant to the Federal Maximum Correctional Center Makurdi.