Medical doctor arrested for allegedly killing woman, 20, and selling her baby weeks after he was arrested for trafficking kids

A medical doctor, who was arrested in October for allegedly trafficking four children to different parts of the country, has been arrested again.

This time, Dr. Happiness Enyinnaya Iheukeumere, aka Dr. Hagi, is accused of killing a 20-year-old pregnant woman and selling her baby.

Dr. Hagi of Hagi Medical Center, located at Abohga Igwuruta market road, Port Harcourt, allegedly performed surgery on a pregnant woman identified as Racheal Sampson to remove her baby. She did not survive the surgery.

Subsequently, the doctor took her baby away and it is believed he sold the child.

According to the sister of the deceased, Dr. Happiness told a nurse to inform their family that Racheal 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 from 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 POS agent and resided at Choba in Rivers State but that was false as we found out that 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 Racheal was pregnant and we never took her to the doctor’s hospital.”

The nurses who worked with Dr. Happiness were questioned and they admitted to being present when the doctor performed surgery on Racheal, killing her. The nurses confirmed the baby was alive after the surgery but the doctor took her to an unknown location.

The doctor then absconded but was eventually caught.

He reportedly took the police to the morgue where he deposited the body of the deceased. He had registered her name as Chioma John and claimed he is her father while giving his name as Chinemerem John.

This comes just weeks after Dr. Happiness was arrested and paraded for child trafficking.

In October 2023, CP Nwonyi Emeka of the Rivers State Police Command explained that following a report on a case of abduction on the 9th of October, the CP and his team swung into action and through intelligence policing arrested on Mr Ifesinachi Opara, which also led to the arrest of Dr Hagi to whom he sold a child.

Further investigation led to the recovery of three more children trafficked by Hagi from different locations in the country.

Nwonyi said his men rescued three children abducted in Benue State from different locations in Port Harcourt where they had been sold. They include a one year, seven months old child, a four-year-old, and a six-year-old female.

Despite the evidence against him, Dr. Happiness regained freedom and allegedly went on to commit more crimes, leading to his arrest again.