For nine months, Khadija Ibrahim let her husband believe she was pregnant. According to the Kebbi State Police Command, that fabrication only became sustainable because she had a plan for how it would end, one that involved someone else’s newborn baby.
The 19-year-old, from Rikoto in Zuru Local Government Area, was arrested on August 14, 2026, in connection with the alleged theft of an infant belonging to Fatima Muhammad. Police say the deception unraveled through a sustained investigation, but the scheme itself had been set in motion more than a year earlier.
Investigators allege the plan came together on July 23, 2025, when Khadija visited Fatima Muhammad shortly after she had given birth. Offering to help, she reportedly volunteered to fetch hot water for the new mother, a small gesture of assistance that police say masked her actual intention. Instead of returning with the water, she allegedly left with the baby.
What made the theft possible, according to preliminary findings, wasn’t opportunity alone. Police say Khadija had been under significant social and emotional strain over her own inability to conceive, a pressure sharpened by watching peers around her become mothers. That strain, investigators believe, is what led her to convince her husband for nine months that she was pregnant, building toward a birth that was never going to happen naturally. When Fatima Muhammad’s baby became available to her, police allege she presented the child to her husband as their own, apparently completing the story she had been constructing for months.
The fabrication ultimately collapsed under police investigation, and the child was recovered and reunited safely with her biological mother. Khadija remains in custody, with police stating she will be charged to court once investigations conclude, in accordance with applicable law.
Commissioner of Police Umar Hadejia commended the officers involved for their diligence in securing the baby’s safe recovery and made a point of addressing the broader concern the case raises. He reassured Kebbi residents that the command remains committed to protecting children in the state and ensuring that anyone responsible for harming them faces justice.
