By Our Reporter
The police in Abia State, South-east Nigeria, say they have busted a suspected “baby factory” in Aba, the commercial hub of the state.
The police spokesperson in Abia State, Maureen Chinaka, disclosed this during a press briefing on Friday in Umuahia, the state capital.
The text of the press briefing was forwarded to newsmen on Saturday.
Ms Chinaka, an assistant superintendent of police, said 16 pregnant girls, aged between 17 and 27 years, were rescued during the operation.
She said 13 of the rescued pregnant girls hail from Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, while two others come from Cross River, another state in the South-south.
One of the girls hails from Ebonyi State, Nigeria’s South-east.
The spokesperson said the operation was conducted on Thursday night by police operatives from the Rapid Response Squad in the state.
She said the operatives also rescued eight children, comprising five males and three females, from the “baby factory”.
The eight children were aged between two and 11 years.
Arrest of suspects
Ms Chinaka said two suspects – a woman and a man – allegedly harbouring the girls at the “baby factory” have been arrested by the police.
The police spokesperson identified the suspects as 29-year-old woman, Onyinyechi Okoro, and 32-year-old man, Ekene Okezie.
She said while Mrs Okoro hails from Ihechiowa Community in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State, Mr Okezie is from Aro-Ndizuogu, a community in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State.
“Discrete investigation is ongoing,” she said.
‘Baby factories’ in Nigeria
“Baby factory,” sometimes disguised as an orphanage, is a name given to a facility where traffickers hold women, mostly teenagers, against their will, rape and force them to get pregnant.
The newborns at the facility are then sold illegally to adoptive parents.
Girls in such a facility are sometimes forced into child labour and prostitution.
A recent investigation uncovered how a supposed Christian orphanage in Anambra State, another state in the South-east, was illegally selling babies between N1.5 million and N2 million, depending on a baby’s gender.
The investigation also revealed how the sales were executed with the collusion of some officials of the Nigerian police and the judiciary