Crime
Police Arrests Nigerian Woman With ‘Faked Birth Story, Smuggled Baby’ Into UK
Police Arrests Nigerian Woman With ‘Faked Birth Story, Smuggled Baby’ Into UK
Police arrests Nigerian woman with ‘faked birth story, smuggled baby’ into UK. The UK police have nabbed a Nigerian woman at Gatwick Airport after she arrived in the country with a very young baby girl believed not to be her child.
The woman has been tagged Susan, while the child is identified as Eleanor. Both names are pseudonyms.
According to a BBC report published on Monday, Susan had been living in West Yorkshire with her husband and children since June 2023.
Before travelling to Nigeria in early June 2024, she had told her doctor in the UK that she was pregnant and wanted to give birth to her baby in her home country.
However, scans and blood tests showed that it was not the case. Instead, they revealed Susan had a tumour, which doctors feared could be cancerous. But she refused treatment.
Susan said her previous pregnancies had been invisible on scans, telling her employer, “My babies are always hidden”.
She also claimed she had been pregnant for up to 30 months with her other children.
When she arrived in Nigeria, she later contacted her local hospital in Britain to say she had given birth.
Sussex Police arrested Susan when she returned to the UK with Eleanor after doctors contacted child services out of concern.
After her arrest, Susan, her husband, and Eleanor were given DNA tests while the child was taken to foster carers.
DNA tests conducted after she arrived showed the baby had no genetic link with Susan or her husband.
Susan demanded a second test, which gave the same result, and then she changed her story.
She blamed the negative DNA test results on an “IVF treatment” with a donor egg and sperm before moving to Britain in 2023.
Susan provided a letter from a Nigerian hospital, signed by the medical director, saying she had given birth there, as well as a document from another clinic about the IVF treatment to back up her claims.
She also provided photos and videos, which she said showed her in the hospital’s labour suite.
In the photo, no face was visible, and one showed a naked woman with a placenta between her legs, with an umbilical cord still attached to it.
INVESTIGATION REVEALS LINK TO ‘BABY FACTORY’
The family court in Leeds sent Henrietta Coker, a social worker with nearly 30 years of experience, to Nigeria for investigations.
Coker visited the medical centre where Susan claimed she had IVF, but there was no record of Susan having a treatment there. Staff told the investigator that the letter was forged.
Coker then visited the place where Susan said she had given birth. She noted that it was a shabby, three-bedroom flat, with stained walls and dirty carpets.
Coker said she was met by three young teenage girls sitting in the reception room with nurses’ uniforms on. She asked to speak to the matron and was “ushered into the kitchen where a teenage girl was eating rice”.
Coker then tracked down the doctor who allegedly wrote the letter attesting that Susan had given birth there.
He confirmed that “someone had given birth”, but shook his head negatively when Coker asked him if Susan was the patient after showing him a picture.
“Impersonating people is common in this part of the world,” the doctor was quoted to have told Coker, suggesting that Susan might have “bought the baby”.
Coker was unable to establish who Eleanor’s real parents were or where she might have come from. The doctor told her he believed the baby would have been given up voluntarily.
The investigator gave evidence to the court in Leeds in March this year, along with Susan, her husband, her employer, and a senior obstetrician.
At an earlier hearing, the judge asked for Susan’s phone to be examined.
Investigators found messages that Susan had sent to someone saved in her contacts as “Mum oft [sic] Lagos Baby”.
About four weeks before the alleged date of birth, Susan wrote a text message which read: “Good afternoon ma, I have not seen the hospital items.”
The same day, Mum oft Lagos Baby responded: “Delivery drug is 3.4 m. Hospital bill 170k.”
The local authority pointed out that the messages were set to “automatic self-destruct mode” and said they represented evidence of a deal to purchase a baby.
Police Arrests Nigerian Woman With ‘Faked Birth Story
Susan tried to explain the messages in court, but the deputy judge of the high court said her attempts were “difficult to follow and impossible to accept”.
ELEANOR TAKEN AWAY
The deputy judge said Susan and her husband had put forward a “fundamental lie” to explain how Eleanor came to be in their care, and had tried to mislead authorities with false documents, causing the little girl “significant emotional and psychological harm”.
Susan and her husband said they wanted Eleanor returned to them, describing her as “a fundamental part of their family unit”.
But the judge ordered that Eleanor be placed for adoption, and made a “declaration of non-parentage”.
When Eleanor is adopted, she will have a new identity and British nationality.
In April, officers of the UK Border Force intercepted a Nigerian couple who attempted to bring in a baby that was not biologically theirs. The baby was identified as Lucy.
The Nigerian High Commission was accused of ignoring requests to comment on the reports of Lucy and Eleanor’s cases.
EFCC Arrests Kannywood Star, Samha Inuwa for Alleged Naira Mutilation In Viral Video
EFCC arrests Kannywood Star, Samha Inuwa for alleged naira mutilation in viral video. The Kano Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, February 3, 2026 arrested a Kannywood Star, Samha Inuwa over alleged Naira mutilation.
Inuwa was arrested following a viral video circulated on social media platforms where she was seen conspicuously cleaning mucus from her nose using Naira notes.
EFCC
Following the release of the viral video, the Commission swung into action by tracing and subsequently arrested her to answer questions.
She is currently being held at the Commission’s detention facility while investigation is ongoing.
The suspect will be charged to court upon conclusion of investigations.
Dele Oyewale
Head, Media & Publicity
February 3, 2026
EFCC Arrests 10 Suspects, Trucks for Suspected Illegal Mining Activities in Kwara
Operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested ten individuals suspected of involvement in illegal mining activities along the Ilorin – Ogbomosho axis.
They were arrested on Sunday, February 1, 2026, following credible intelligence on unlawful mineral excavation and transportation in parts of Kwara and Oyo States.
The suspects, comprising nine truck drivers and one escort were intercepted and taken into custody in a well -coordinated sting operation. Solid minerals arrested with the suspects include lithium, tin, and lepidolite.
EFCC Arrests 10 Suspects
The suspects have no requisite licences, permits, or regulatory approvals for their mining activities.
Other items recovered from the suspects are trucks loaded with the unlawfully mined materials.
The suspects will be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigations.
List Of 40 Suspects Detained Over Alleged Plot To Overthrow Tinubu Government
List of 40 suspects detained over alleged plot to overthrow Tinubu Government. Nigerian security agencies have concluded investigations into an alleged coup plot to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s administration, with at least 40 suspects detained in connection with the conspiracy.
The suspects include senior military officers, a police officer, and several civilians accused of roles ranging from reconnaissance and funding to propaganda.
According to a Premium Times report, the arrests followed a covert intelligence operation coordinated by the Army Headquarters and the State Security Service (SSS).
“Thirteen people were apprehended by the SSS, including two military personnel (one retired), one policeman, and ten civilians,” one source said.
In total, 16 serving military officers were detained for direct involvement, while others were linked to funding and incitement. Two civilians were reportedly recruited to incite civil unrest intended to justify the coup.
According to the online newspaper, one of the detained soldiers was said to have escaped custody but was later rearrested by SSS operatives in Bauchi State, according to insider accounts.
Recall that on Monday, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) confirmed that the investigation had been completed and forwarded to “appropriate superior authority in line with extant regulations.”
“Findings identified several officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government,” the military said, describing the act as “inconsistent with the ethics, values and professional standards required of members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.”
Sources said authorities are now awaiting presidential approval to constitute a court-martial panel to try the indicted soldiers.
Investigations revealed that the coupists initially planned to disrupt the May 29, 2023 handover ceremony from former President Muhammadu Buhari to President Tinubu, but the plan was shelved due to lack of funds and logistics.
The conspiracy was allegedly reactivated in 2025, after former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva purportedly transferred nearly ₦1 billion through multiple Bureau De Change accounts to fund the operation.
Sylva and a retired senior officer identified as Major General Adamu, both accused of bankrolling the plot, are reportedly at large.
Security sources said one of the fugitive suspects has been tracked to a South American country, though his precise location remained undisclosed for security reasons.
Investigators also uncovered a chilling plan to assassinate top government officials, including President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
“They were waiting for a day when all of them would be in the country. Wherever they were, they would be assassinated,” one source revealed.
The plot allegedly relied on informants inside the Presidential Villa, who monitored the movements of top officials. The conspirators were to seize control of strategic locations such as the Presidential Villa, Niger Barracks, Armed Forces Complex, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
Military
Hereunder is the full list of the alleged coupists arrested
MA Sadiq (Brigadier General) Army lHeadquarters Garrison
MA Ma’aji (Colonel) Defence Space Administration
S Bappah (Lt. Colonel) 525 Signal Regiment
AA Hayatu (Lt Colonel) 130 Battalion Main, Ogoja, Cross River State
P Dangnap (Lt Colonel) 134 Special Force Battalion
M Almakura (Lt Colonel) 197 Special Force Battalion
AA Jarma (Lt Colonel) CO, 35 Battalion Katsina
SM Gana (Lt Colonel) 115 Task Force Battalion
AD Dauda (Maj) Armed Forces Command and Staff College Jaji
JM GANAKS (Maj) Armed Forces Command and Staff College Jaji
AJ Ibrahim (Maj) Army Headquarters’ Department of Policy and Plans
MM Jiddah (Maj) 26 Battalion
MA Usman (Maj) 35 Battalion
D Yusuf (Maj) Forward Operating Base Molai (AHQ SG)
J Iliyasu (Maj) 3 Division Garrison
A Mohammed (Maj) 63 Brigade Garrison
DB Abdullahi (Lt Cdr) Naval Base Abuja
SB Adamu (Sqn Ldr) National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)
NG Zuzu (Sqn Ldr) Headquarters, Nigeria Air Force Camp
G Binuga (Captain) 1 NMF Brigade
AA Yusuf (Captain) Nigerian Army of the School of Finance and Administration (NASFA)
1 Bello (Captain) 82 Division Garrison
SS Felix (Lt) 81 Division Provost Group
J Aminu (Lt) Headquarters Directorate of Army Public Relations (DAPR)
Nasiru Ibrahim (WO) 82 Division Garrison
Sanda Usman (Sgt) 167 Special Force Battalion
Mohammed Zubairu (Sgt) 177 Guards Battalion
Momoh Audu (Cpl) 343 Artillery Regiment
Ahmed Ibrahim (Inspector) 24 Police Mobile Force, Presidential Villa
EO Victor (Navy Capt/Rtd) 3 Abraham Avenue off Odili Road, Port Harcourt
Umoru Zekeri Julius Berger, Villa Electrician
Y Nasiru (LCpl) 82 Division Garrison
Sambo Danladi (LCpl) 82 Division Garrison
Abdul Abdullahi (SSgt) 82 Division Garrison
Ali Isah Villa Ambulance Driver
ML Mohammed (Capt) 18 Battalion
UI Yusuf (Wg Cdr) International/Helicopter Flying School, Enugu
IM Gana (Maj Gen Rtd) No 34 A Army Estate, Kubwa, Abuja
Stanley Kingley Amandi Propagandist
Goni Bukar
Security sources confirmed that joint operations involving multiple agencies are underway to dismantle remaining cells and track fleeing suspects. The EFCC and SSS are also interrogating several civilians over alleged roles in funding, logistics, and coordination.
At least 25 military personnel are expected to face trial in connection with the plot, according to sources close to the investigation.
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