A thirty-two-year-old woman who approaches expectant and breast feeding mothers with the intention of buying their babies has been arrested by the Railways Police. Parllarze Yormiego, also called Salamatu Sulemana, who claims to be half Ghanaian and half Burkinabe, disguised herself as a pregnant woman and approached four young street women who live at Railways near Kantamanto in Accra Central in a bid to convince them to exchange their children for money ranging from GH¢40 to GH¢100. She was arrested by a Good Samaritan, Nicholas Adjei, who overheard her transacting with one young woman over a possible sale of her child and alerted the police who picked and detained her. Salamatu, who had told her potential victims that she was in a business of helping poor parents to care for their wards by buying the children and sending them abroad, told the young women that she was also an expectant mother. However, a search on her at the police station revealed that she had stuffed her tummy with rags which she put in a net-like scarf and tied to her belly, making her appear like a pregnant woman. According to the District Police Commander, DSP Daniel Asong Dankyi, Salamatu was brought in as a pregnant woman but upon interrogation, it was revealed that the pregnancy was a fake. One of the purported victims, Akua Serwaa, 19, who is nine-month old pregnant told DAILY GUIDE that the accused, in the company of one man, approached her a few weeks ago one fateful night at about 8:00pm while she was sleeping at the yard of the Railways Station. She called her aside and introduced herself that she works with some white men in a company that bought babies. Her mission there that night was to search for pregnant women she would care for until they delivered. Salamatu would then give her an amount of GH¢100 if she agreed to the pact and gave her baby to her on the very day of delivery. Thereafter, Salamatu started remitting Akua of various sums of money ranging from GH¢3 to GH¢5 for the past three weeks. She later bought two baby dress and two pieces of calico to wrap the baby. She indicated that since she would pick the baby on the day of delivery, there was no need to give Akua more clothes because she would buy more dresses for the baby when she took it home. She also said when the child is taken abroad, the mother would be granted the opportunity to see the photograph of the child only after six years, adding the mother would also be given a capital to trade. But any of them who failed to comply with the pact, after enjoying her money, would be cursed with a dreaded deity which would strike her to death. Salamatu on another occasion approached a 21-year-old, Lydia Adwoa Appiah , who has a three-month old baby, and indicated she had even bought four children and was in a hurry to pick one other at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. She told Adwoa she would revisit her on August 26, 2009 in the company of two men to take her baby away in exchange of GH¢100. However, according to Adwoa, she was so frightened that she told a friend of hers about Salamatu’s intention. Regina Nana Adwoa Arthur, 24, with a month old baby, was also approached with an offer of GH¢60 in exchange of her son while Janet Maame Abena Timaa, 19, with a three-month old baby was also approached with an offer of GH¢100 in exchange of her daughter. Adwoa Arthur said she was approached by Salamatu while she was with a traditional birth attendant and she insisted to pay her bills in exchange of her baby and as well give her an additional amount of GH¢60,which she blatantly refused. Meanwhile, Salamatu who dresses like a married Muslim woman, speaks Ewe very fluently but insists she is a Burkinabe who only schooled at Ho, the capital of the Volta Region. She told the police during interrogation she had a child from her previous marriage but since she re-married some six years ago, she has not been able to conceive, a situation that has resulted in the near collapse of her marriage. She therefore feigned the pregnancy in order to save her marriage. She indicated that she had informed her husband who had traveled abroad that she is eight months pregnant with the intention that she would buy Serwaa’s baby and act as though she had delivered before her husband returned from his trip abroad. The girls said they were scared that their children could be used for sakawa rituals since rumors of such stories are all over their residence. “I do not understand why she does not like children of six months and above but only day-old babies to three months old,” Lydia, one of the girls said. Source: Daily Guide