An Ekiti State High Court has sentenced 37-year-old Deborah Ayeni to 14 years in prison for stealing a newborn baby.
Justice Lekan Olatawura handed down the sentence after Ayeni failed to appear in court following her release on bail. She has subsequently been declared a fugitive and wanted for arrest.
During the trial, the prosecution called four witnesses and told the court that Ayeni lost a pregnancy around May 2025 but allegedly concealed the loss from her husband, who lives abroad.
According to the prosecution, Ayeni told her husband that she was pregnant and invited him to Nigeria for the delivery. She allegedly used clothes wrapped around her stomach to make it appear as though she was still pregnant.
The prosecution said Ayeni later went to a hospital in the Okeyinmi area of Ado-Ekiti, where she allegedly stole a newborn baby belonging to another woman.
She reportedly handed the baby over to a midwife for care and told her husband that she had buried the placenta after giving birth.
However, the midwife allegedly became suspicious of Ayeni's activities and reported the matter to the police, leading to her arrest.
Ayeni was subsequently granted bail in the sum of N2 million, with two sureties required to provide the same amount. Her father, Babatope Ayeni, and another individual stood as her sureties.
She later stopped appearing in court. On one occasion, her lawyer told the court that Ayeni could not attend because she had allegedly been abducted by unknown assailants.
The court eventually revoked her bail after she failed to appear.
Delivering judgment, Justice Olatawura directed 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 arrest.
The judge ordered that her 14-year prison sentence should take effect immediately upon her arrest.
The court also sentenced her two sureties, including her father, to six months in prison for failing to produce Ayeni and pay the required recognisance fees, in accordance with the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Ekiti State 2014, as amended.
