The Ekiti State High Court, Ado-Ekiti has sentenced a 37-year-old woman, Deborah Ayeni, to 14 years imprisonment for stealing a newborn baby from its mother.
Justice Lekan Olatawura, who delivered the judgment yesterday, also declared Ayeni a fugitive after she failed to appear in court to face trial.
The judge said the decision followed the failure of her sureties to produce her in court after the prosecution had called four witnesses in the case.
He consequently ordered the court registrar to forward the judgment and a letter to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Police Force and the media, declaring Ayeni a fugitive and calling for her apprehension.
Justice Olatawura ordered that the 14-year jail term should commence immediately after Ayeni is arrested.
The judge also sentenced her two sureties, including her father, Babatope Ebenezer Ayeni, to six months imprisonment for failing to produce the convict in court and pay the required recognisance fees, in line with the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Ekiti State, 2014, as amended.
He had earlier revoked the bail granted Ayeni after she repeatedly failed to appear in court to answer the charge against her.
Ayeni, who was first arraigned on September 1, 2025, had pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of child stealing.
The prosecutor, Ibironke Odetola, told the court that Ayeni, on August 4, 2025, in Ado-Ekiti, with intent to deprive Mustapher Aliu and his wife, Falmata, of their newborn baby, unlawfully stole and took the child away.
She said Ayeni was granted bail after her arrest and detention at the Correctional Centre in Ado-Ekiti in the sum of N2 million, with two sureties in like sum.
According to the prosecutor, the prosecution called four witnesses during the trial, but while the third witness was giving evidence, Ayeni told her counsel, Mr Stephen Ademuagun, that she had been kidnapped along the road.
She subsequently stopped appearing in court.
Odetola said Ayeni’s father, who was one of her sureties, appeared in court once and told the judge, when questioned about his daughter’s whereabouts, that she was at home.
The prosecutor further told the court that Ayeni had claimed to have lost a pregnancy around May 2025 and, in an attempt to conceal the loss and save her marriage, lied to her husband, who is based abroad, that she was pregnant and about to deliver.
“She invited her husband to come back to Nigeria for her delivery and deceived him with clothes wrapped around her stomach to feign the existence of a pregnancy,” she said.
Odetola said Ayeni subsequently went to a health centre in the Okeyinmi area of Ado-Ekiti, where she stole the newborn baby from the complainants.
She thereafter handed the baby over to a midwife for care, after telling her husband that she had buried the placenta.
The prosecutor said the midwife, who noticed anomalies in Ayeni’s activities, alerted the police, leading to her arrest.
Odetola confirmed that the stolen baby was later rescued alive by the police.
The offence, she said, contravened Section 292 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
Panic in Bayelsa court as murder suspect slumps, dies awaiting judgment
From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
There was panic at the Bayelsa State High Court yesterday when a 50-year-old murder suspect, Bethlehem Nwanlia, slumped and died while awaiting final judgment in a case involving conspiracy, kidnapping and multiple murders.
Nwanlia, alongside 32-year-old Gideon Atama and Clever Ovo, was arrested by police operatives attached to Operation Puff Adder, now known as the Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), headed by CSP Chris Nwaogbo.
The trio were arrested over the 2022 murders of Odeinyefa Ogbolosingha, an in-law to Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri; Paramount Ruler Kolibo Francis Amabelimo; and Samuel Oburo, in Kalaba community, Yenagoa Local Government Area.
Prison sources said Nwanlia had developed health complications, including high blood pressure and stroke, while being held at the Medium Correctional Centre, Okaka.
Witnesses at the court said trouble started after the court clerk announced that the final judgment, earlier expected on Tuesday, had been adjourned to October 27, 2026, due to the absence of the judge.
According to the witnesses, Nwanlia suddenly clutched his chest and slumped.
Efforts by those around him to revive him reportedly failed, as he was pronounced dead.
His death reportedly left officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service, policemen and lawyers at the court stunned.
The case, involving allegations of conspiracy, kidnapping and multiple murders, was consequently thrown into uncertainty following the death of one of the accused persons.
