BY TIMOTHY AGBOR
A medical practitioner, identified as Dr. Happiness Enyinnaya Iheukeumere, from Hagi Medical Center in Abohga Igwuruta Market Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State has been arrested by the state police command for alleged child trafficking and murder of a 20-year-old woman.
Iheukeumere, also known as Dr. Hagi, had earlier been arrested in October over allegations of child trafficking.
But this time, he was accused of killing a 20-year-old pregnant woman and selling her baby.
The doctor was alleged to have performed a surgery on the pregnant woman, identified as Rachael Sampson, to remove her baby but the victim did not survive the surgery.
The doctor was said to have taken the baby away, and it is believed he sold the child.
The sister of the deceased revealed that Dr. Hagi instructed a nurse to inform their family that Rachael had died in a car accident.
She said, “On the 15th of November, 2023, an anonymous lady called us to inform us that my sister had died in a car crash.
“The informant sent us a fake number and told us that she got the tip-off from that number. We asked her where my sister’s dead body was deposited, and she couldn’t say.
“We tried contacting the number she sent, but it proved abortive. Then, my parents went to Aba in search of my late sister’s body since an accident happened there. But the police and medical personnel told my parents that no woman died at the scene of the accident.
“We reported the development to the police, and they helped us to track the anonymous lady who gave us the tip-off.
“The anonymous lady had claimed that she was a POS agent and resided at Choba in Rivers State, but that was false as we discovered she was a nurse.
“She was eventually arrested and confessed that Dr. Happiness had brought my sister to stay with her for one week but came to pick her up on Monday, November 13.
“Two days later, he called the nurse and told her that my sister died while he was operating on her and instructed her not to tell the family. He ordered her to blacklist our numbers. We weren’t even aware that Rachael was pregnant, and we never took her to the doctor’s hospital.”
The nurses who worked with Dr. Hagi were questioned and admitted to being present when the doctor performed the surgery which later resulted in Rachael’s death.
The nurses confirmed that the baby was alive after the surgery, but the doctor took her to an unknown location.
