Before now, baby farms appeared alien in the country. It was not
known to be among business ventures Nigerians are known for. But today, it has
become a big industry and a steady source of income for many, particularly in
the South-East. It thrives almost in all the neigbourhood in that region and
the adjoining states. Many residents know the traders, where they operate, but
watch helplessly as these little souls are sold into modern slavery or for
ritual purposes. What are the reasons behind this illicit trade? Why and how are
they flourishing in this region? These form the fulcrum of this report by Head,
Special Investigations, Isioma Madike
The South-East people of Nigeria are known to be industrious in
nature. Commerce has been their main stay for centuries, though, not in the
awful area of baby farms or factories as many call it. Such business activity
was, indeed, alien to the natives before now. Today, however, the story is
different.
That industry flourishes and has become a steady source of
income for many in that region. It now thrives almost in all the neigbourhood
and the adjoining states. Many residents know the traders, where and how they
operate, yet, watch helplessly as the little souls are sold into modern slavery
or for ritual purposes. Though, children are supposed to be blessings from God,
they have become in this part of the country, wares, which only those with good
money can purchase.
Many teenage girls are lured into the farms where the business
is routinely conducted in tiny, dilapidated and filthy buildings. Most often,
the locals do not suspect anything phony because most of these “factories” are
disguised as something else. Some are labelled maternity homes while others
bear the inscription of orphanages. There are others, which masquerade as small
informal water packaging plants, popularly known as pure water, which are fully
equipped with machines; plastic bottles as well as distribution vehicles, which
are also common sight in such compounds. There are usually bushes around these
structures, small trees and oddly built walls with open air passage ways. Right
inside, the girls are crammed into the miniature rooms where they slept on bare
floor and sometimes, straw mats. The babies are conceived in these quarters,
right on the floor while the teenagers are lined up and forced to have
sex one after the other in full view of other young woman.
‘It’s prevalent because there’s no serious sanction’
The practice of delivering pregnant mothers in these homes takes
varying forms. In most cases, desperate girls with unplanned pregnancies,
fearing ostracism by society, get lured to these “maternities” and are forced
to turn over their babies. The girls are intimidated so much that many of them
can hardly relate their experience freely. They are sometimes tricked into
thinking it was a safe haven for teenagers, who did not want to keep their
babies, but did not want an abortion either. So, many give up their babies for
what they thought would be a formal adoption. Once they are in the compound,
they are held prisoner and forced to get pregnant repeatedly. They are seen
sometimes milling around the centres but leave alone after putting to bed.
Their babies are sold and they are paid off and buyers are always on queue
waiting for babies to be delivered. It is alleged that the babies are taken
from the young mothers and given away for between N50, 000 and N100, 000 while
the mothers are paid pittance. It was also gathered that while some pregnant
girls found their way there, some hired deviant boys and girls are invited to
engage in sexual orgies to make the girls pregnant while the fruits of such
exercises are left with the operators of the homes. The young mothers come from
various places and most of them are secondary school dropouts. They share a
common destiny: they all carry unwanted pregnancies.
The second category, are those in the poverty bracket. Some
married women, who get pregnant by accident and want to dispose of their
babies, are also welcomed in the homes. Meanwhile, they would turn around to
claim that their babies died shortly after delivery. There are others, because
of the dwindling sense of values, gradually drift into modern slavery. Those,
who cannot fend for their many children, sold some and use the proceeds to
cater for the others. The patrons have contacts in high places. According
to some of the victims, who preferred anonymity, “we are kept and fed miserly
until we put to bed.”
Yet, there is the other type. Married women, who had been unable
to bear children, arrange to buy illegally from these homes. This was what
played out in July 2011, in Surulere, Lagos. A childless lady from one of the
South-West states, who was married for five years and facing family
discomforts, was lured by her lady friend into buying a baby from a “factory”
in Aba, Abia State. The lady went to Aba, met the owners of the baby market and
was asked to pay N2 million for a male child. She was also given some
medicines, which enabled her to deceive her husband to think she was pregnant.
Towards the time of her supposed delivery, she told her husband she was
travelling abroad to have the baby. The husband consented only for her to make
a U-turn to Aba where a baby boy had been arranged and handed over to her after
paying the full amount as agreed.
These revelations rattled the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO),
which is hugely worried and disturbed that such magnitude of crimes are
committed by citizens not protected by laws from being investigated and
charged. “It is an indictment on the Police and National Agency for the
Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP), and we
join all men and women of good conscience to condemn this notorious action of
the law enforcement agencies. It is absolutely condemnable and we condemn these
attitudes of our people,” said Ibuchukwu Ezike, CLO Executive Director.
But, NATIP Head, Communication and Media, Arinze Orakwue, has
exonerated his organisation. According to him, “the issue of baby sales is not
our responsibility; it has come up as a result of sharp practices in our
adoption procedure and rules. Adoption, as a fact, is a matter on the
con-current list, which both the state and the federal government can deal
with. NAPTIP as a responsible agency intervenes just to disrupt the commission
of crime in the process. We have drawn the attention of the Ministry of Women
Affairs under whose responsibility this matter resides to tackle arising concerns.
Bottom line, however, is that it is a corruption of the legal adoption process
and the police has overriding coverage on that matter.”
Orakwue pointed out that the war on baby sales requires multi
sectoral response and action. “No one organisation can tackle the scourge
alone. There are cross cutting issues bothering on the causes, the predisposing
factors for example. One causative factor is poverty and NAPTIP is not a
poverty alleviating agency. There are issues of collapse of social infrastructures
like schools. NAPTIP is not involved here either. Other issues of collapse of
social values, dysfunctional family position, and pursuit of material things,
abuse of traditional fostering system and most importantly, weak adoption of
child rights acts by states. In all these, you needed the whole of society
response as the way forward,” he said.
His position has, somewhat, found support in the South-East
zonal coordinator of NAPTIP, Mrs. Nkiruka Michael. She reiterated that her
organisation does not have jurisdiction over issues of illegal maternity homes
or sale of babies, adding that it is only police that is competent to handle
the matter. “We are not handling sale of babies for now. Some of these girls
are not exploited, but are sent there by their parents. And some are looking
for cover from the society not to know the sins they have committed. When they
now give birth they negotiate; if they want to sell, they sell. So, we are not
dealing with children less than 18 years. Their cases fall under police act for
sale of babies,” said Michael.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs in Cross River State, Mrs.
Edak Iwuchukwu, said that the Cross River State government has resolved to
create a child friendly environment to stem this ugly tide. She stressed that the
crusade to make the state fit for a child as being championed by the wife of
the state governor, Obioma Imoke’s Non-Governmental- Organisation, A State Fit
for A Child (ASFAC) will continue to be sustained. She calls on stakeholders to
give a thought to the rights and privileges of vulnerable children rather than
resort to selling them out to evil people for material gains. “We are can only
plead to Cross Riverians and other Nigerians not to take undue advantage of
vulnerable teenage girls,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar,
has said that “the culprits of the latest baby factory saga will go to court
after intensive and thorough investigations. You cannot allow this kind of act
to go on in the society and we need information and intelligence to be able to
expose more of such culprits in our culture. So, as soon as police conclude
investigations, they will go to where they belong; the court of law and justice
will take its course.”
However, the Enugu State Police Public Relations officer, Ebere
Amaraizu, confirmed that his command is investigating the matter to expose the
ring or network of the crime. “We are almost arriving at something now with a
view to sanitising the places. It is a crime and immorality. When we get them,
the ones we can transfer to NAPTIP we do, others we take to court. We need to
establish the network of their illegal business because whatever you do with
the suspects now without finding out the network, they are bound to return to
the system again,” the police spokesman said.
His counterpart in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, John
Umoh, also stated that his command is ever ready to swing into action to clamp
down on anybody suspected to be an accomplice or neck deep into such heinous
and devilish business. For the police in Anambra State, “we reacted the way we
did because somebody petitioned the suspects over the alleged crime. We are
legally entitled to investigate the case.”
‘Societal pressure forces childless women into patronising centres’
The Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa State, Tonye Ebitibituwa,
though, said there is no known incidence of baby factories in the state at
present, perpetrators of the illegal baby farms masquerading as maternity homes
in other states of the federation should be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent
to others. The Police boss said when a couple is childless, it does not warrant
them to go and buy another woman’s baby. According to the Commissioner,
childless couples should be prayerful to God and desist from engaging in
criminal acts that could dent their image. Ebitibituwa, who spoke through the
State PPRO, Alex Akhigbe, told Sunday Mirror in Yenagoa, that “it is the most
unpalatable thing to do. There is no religion that supports the buying of
children from baby farms.” The Commissioner for Gender and Youth Development,
Sarafina Otazi, was not available for comments.
There are others, who are equally worried about the growing
incidences of baby farms across the country. For instance, the deputy registrar
of the Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), Victor Ndifon, has said
that the social consequence of this “heartless and brisk business” is profound
and wide ranging. He said quite apart from the continuous debasement of
motherhood, there is certainly going to be a rise in ritual killing when the
supply of hapless victims is guaranteed in this macabre manner. According to
him, a number of vulnerable teenage girls are going to be either forced or
enticed with money into the baby trade just to ensure that there is continuity.
“Another reason for baby farms is the fact that police have not
been very proactive in terms of following up reports of missing teenage girls
suspected to have been held captive by operators of this illicit trade. In
essence, a comprehensive breakdown of the nation’s welfare, security and
identification system has aided the savage and barbaric business to thrive. It
could also be due to the near impunity under which the baby trade is conducted.
They seemed to be immune from the law; as it is difficult for a case of baby
sale to appear in the law courts. When offenders of this section of the law are
allowed to get away with their crime, it goes a long way to substantiate
rumours of complicity at the highest level of the society. For a country whose
people were serially victimised by centuries of foreign and domestic slavery,
it could be disheartening and ridiculous to hear that such savage practice is
still rampant in a nation that prides itself as the giant of Africa,” Ndifon
stated.
A public affairs commentator and media consultant, Ezeudu Ken,
equally attributes the cause of this crime to the fact that serious sanctions
were not being imposed on those involved in the act by the government.
According to him, “these days government does not punish those who are into it.
This gave impetus to others to join the business and it continues to grow.” Ken
said to control the trend, government should monitor very seriously, the
activities of motherless baby homes and hospitals, just as proper orientation
should be given to the girls on the need for them to desist from the act.
Others, who spoke on the issue, attribute the cause to the quest for male child
by many families.
What has become popularly known as “baby factory” came to the
open in 2006, when one Ben Ezinma, the Programme Manager of an NGO, Child
Rights Network (CHIRN), drew the attention of government to the sale of babies
by some unscrupulous persons, motherless babies’ homes and orphanages in the
South-East. Ezinma stated that the privately-owned homes were channels for
child trafficking and slavery and urged the government to investigate the
process of child adoption, because “it had been grossly abused.” He described
what went on then as, “neo-trafficking” in the name of adoption, adding that
the price of a child was as high as N200, 000 depending on the sex or state of
health of the baby.
‘I was told not to visit ante-natal clinic for nine months’
Before the child trade boom, however, dumping of children was
commonplace and people with dubious business sense, realising that the dumped
children could be source of joy for childless couples, exploited the situation
to make money. Consequently, organised baby racketeering drastically reduced
child-dumping cases. Initially, it was not seen as illegal because some “smart”
people just set up homes where young girls with unwanted pregnancies went to
give birth, gave up their babies and returned home to their parents as if
nothing had happened. The new babies were later sold to those in need. Thus,
many people set up child trade outlets and anyone with enough money walked in
and smiled home with a baby of his or her choice.
Just in a week, two baby factories were uncovered by Nigeria’s
security agencies in two famous states of Imo and Enugu. Though, such cases of
baby factories have been uncovered in the past but very little or nothing has
been done to tackle this menace head-on in order to dissuade those in the
trade. In contemporary Nigerian society, any married couple or family that has no
child are often subject of pity by the society. In most cases, some of them are
ostracized and treated inhumanly. The gender that is most hit is the female.
She is called all manners of insulting names by her in-laws and often seen as a
man living with another man. Such situations have led a lot of them without
children to resort to any available means of getting or making babies so as to
be free from the societal pressures they daily face.
In Nigeria, there are plethora of orphanages and motherless
baby’s homes. Majority of these homes have license to operate and carry out
such activities under the law, and they help childless couples (after meeting
certain laid down rules) to adopt any baby of their choice and end their many
years of childlessness. The Homes have been inundated and infiltrated by
dubious characters such as cultists, ritualists and people who manufacture and
sell babies for many selfish and inhuman reasons.
Last week in Imo State, an illegal motherless baby home where
babies are “produced” and sold to financially buoyant individuals at very high
prices was discovered. It was gathered that this Home specializes in breeding
and nurturing young pregnant ladies between the ages of 16 and 20 whose main
job is to produce babies after being impregnated by a paid male whose job is to
get them pregnant. As if the discovery in Imo was not enough, another baby farm
also came to light in Udi, Enugu State. The farm produced and sold to rich
country men for so many selfish reasons other than just having a child. Similar
centres have been raided in the past by the police, but a host of them are
still thriving. The search for the fruit of the womb has equally driven many
women to take extreme steps. When women are unable to conceive and bear
children, the huge psychological toll makes them fall prey to fraudulent people
and patrons of ‘baby factories’. Desope Cecilia, 61, and Joy Ibe, 43, were
among victims in recent times. A midwife, Oby George, promised them “miracle”
twins and triplets respectively. Cecilia said she had not been able to give her
78-year-old husband a child since they got married. “A lady, who knew I had
tried to conceive without success for a long time, told me about the midwife
(George). The lady gave me the phone number of the woman and I learnt her
clinic is in Port Harcourt. When I got there in March 2012, she explained to me
that she would be able to treat me with herbs and I would get pregnant. I was
told to pay N1.5m, which I paid to her.
“She gave me some herbs to take back to Lagos with me and take
for nine months. I took the herbs religiously. My tummy began to swell, and my
feet too. Those were the only signs I had that made me think I was pregnant.
George forbade me from going for any form of ante-natal session or scan. So,
within the nine-month period that my tummy protruded like that of a pregnant
woman, I visited no hospital. She told me that if I did, they would not see
anything because what I was carrying was a “miracle” pregnancy,” she recounted.
Cecilia said she left George’s clinic, thinking she had, indeed,
been blessed with “miracle twins”. However, the Lagos Command PPRO, Ngozi
Braide, said on April 16, Cecilia took the twins for immunisation at the Amuwo
Odofin Health Centre, Lagos. “But the medical officials at the centre were
suspicious that Cecilia was not the biological mother of the twins. They then
alerted the Area A Police Command. During investigation, she told the police
that they were “miracle babies” Our men got the address of the midwife and went
to Port Harcourt, where the midwife was arrested,” Braide said.
In Ibe’s case, she wanted triplets. For that, she had to pay
N2.7m to George for the babies. Like Cecilia, Ibe was referred to George by a
friend. She contacted the midwife few months after Cecilia did. “After I went
to Port Harcourt to meet the midwife, I paid the N2.7m and I was given some
herbs, which I drank regularly. My belly began to grow and my feet became
swollen too. The midwife told me not to go to the hospital for scan or any
ante-natal. I went to Port Harcourt to ask when I would be due for delivery.
She told me I was not due yet. Since it was too late to go back to Lagos, I
slept over at her house. It was when I was there that police came to arrest
her,” she narrated.
Nigerian police had equally uncovered series of alleged baby
factories in recent years, notably in the South-eastern part of the country,
but the intended buyers of the children were often not established. When the
news broke in April 2012, that Ihiala, a village along the Onitsha-Owerri
expressway in Anambra State, haboured an unusual factory that churns out
special human products, many were shocked. But, it turned out to be real. The
factory, identified as Spormil Hospital and Maternity home, was registered as
Iheanyi Ezuma Foundation. The discovery was strange because babies were
produced and sold from that home. The massive complex was always a beehive of
activities, and teenage girls as well as flashy cars were said not to be in
short supply around that neighbourhood on a daily basis. Yet, it was difficult
to see what goes on in the compound from the outside because of its high walls.
About that same time, too, the police made a similar raid on
another ‘baby factory,’ which was registered as Divine Mercy Motherless Babies’
home, in Ibosi, also in Anambra State. Though, the proprietor allegedly
escaped, 20 pregnant teenage mothers and eight babies were rescued and
evacuated in the home. Not long after that, soldiers burst another home tucked
inside the sleepy Ugwaku community in Okigwe, Imo State. The place was said to
be a haven for childtracking activities and situated along the Enugu/Port
Harcourt expressway.
Incidentally, the raids and closures of those dubious maternity
homes were not enough to deter others, who venture into this despicable
pastime. Instead, as some are being closed, new ones are opening shop. But,
Enugu, known for its coal, appears to be the new destination for this group of
merchants. One of such spots, according to Sunday Mirror investigation, is St.
Anthony’s Maternity Home, located at No. 24 Chukwuani Street in the Coal Camp
area of the state.
An impeccable source at the Enugu State Ministry of Women
Affairs and Social Development, told our reporter that “the home was registered
for the admission of social mothers and abandoned babies. But, what we
discovered later was not part of the arrangement. The proprietor takes
advantage of innocent girls for business rather than going into charity work,
which she registered the home for. She lures the young mothers to camp and
sometimes subject them to unpaid hard labour while pregnant.”
In 2011, the police raided two hospitals, and dismantled two
baby factories also in Enugu State. In June of the same year, 32 pregnant girls
were rescued in Aba, Abia from a hospital of the Cross Foundation. Between
January and March 2010, 77 girls were rescued in other parts of Abia State. The
same in 2009, where over six baby factories were sealed with hundreds of
pregnant young girls released. In 2008, a network of baby factories claiming to
be orphanages was revealed in Enugu, Enugu State by police raids. Another 13
girls were rescued from 80-year-old Grace Erondu in the same state. Fourteen
others were rescued from Divine Mercy and Childcare Home at 2, Nwankpe Street,
Aba, managed by Felicia Ebe, seven in Enugu and 42 others rescued from Nma
Child Care/Charity Centre in Abia State. In 2007, 19 girls were rescued from a
cartel that operated between Aba and Port Harcourt in Rivers State. The list,
indeed, is endless. But, many believe that the trade is thriving because most
of the people involved wield powerful influence with which they circumvent the
law.
Additional reports by Dennis Agbo (Enugu), Emma Gbemudu
(Yenagoa), Richard Ndoma (Calabar) and Charles Okeke (Awka).
Culled:National Mirror
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