Ekiti: Woman jailed 14 years for child stealing

A 37-year-old woman, Deborah Ayeni, was on Tuesday sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by an Ekiti State High Court in Ado-Ekiti in absentia for child stealing and was thereafter declared wanted.

Justice Lekan Olatawura handed down the sentence when the convict’s surety failed to produce her in court after the prosecution had called four witnesses during the trial.

Olatawura also ordered the court registrar to forward the court judgment and a letter to the Comptroller General of Customs, the Nigeria Police and the media declaring Ayeni a fugitive on the run and for her apprehension.

He ordered that the sentence should commence immediately Ayeni is apprehended.

Olatawura also imposed a penalty of six months imprisonment on the two sureties, which included Ayeni’s father, Mr Babatope Ebenezer Ayeni, in line with the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Ekiti State, 2014 (as amended) for failing to produce Ayeni and to pay the required recognisance surety fees.

He had earlier revoked the bail granted the convict for failing to appear in court to answer the charge against her.

However,the convict had on her first arraignment on September 1, 2025 pleaded not guilty to the one count charge of child stealing preferred against her.

The prosecutor, Ibironke Odetola, said that the convict had on August 4, 2025, in Ado-Ekiti, with intent to deprive one Mustapher Aliu and his wife, Falmata, of their new born baby in their care did steal and unlawfully took the baby away.

She said that the convict was granted bail upon her arrest and detention at the Correctional Centre in Ado-Ekiti in the sum of N2 million and two sureties each in like sum.