Nigeria’s baby factories thriving despite crackdown

Nigerian authorities are worried that a particularly disturbing child trafficking vice, commonly known as 'baby factory', continues to thrive in spite of a continuous crackdown over the last few years. 

Baby factory refers to a practice where men are hired to impregnate women, whose newborn babies are then sold in the black market.   

This practice usually happens in ramshackle churches and illegal nursing homes across the regions of Nigeria where proprietors take advantage of gullible and unsuspecting young girls to produce babies for sale. 

The term also refers to the locations where the girls are made pregnant and housed, and are common in the southeast, south and southwest regions of Nigeria. 

At least 198 such homes have been shut down in the last five years, said the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

Yet, the business thrives because many of the victims who were held captive and sometimes paid a pittance to produce babies for sale continue emerging to recount their experiences.

Sexual abuse 

For instance, 18-year-old secondary school leaver Favour Friday, one of the girls rescued from a baby factory located in a church in Rumuolumili, Port Harcourt, Rivers state, said she was dumped by her boyfriend after becoming pregnant. 

“A woman known as Precious took me in and took me into the church, where I stayed for one month and gave birth there. They gave me an injection that induced the labour. They locked me up in a room with some other girls for hours,” she said.

“I slept and when I woke up, they told me that my baby was dead, but I later heard that they sold my baby and one other child for $5,000 (N2.5 million).” 

Loveth Emmanuel, another victim, is one of 23 young girls rescued from another baby factory that was busted on March 11 in Otolo, Imo state, southeast Nigeria.

“I was lured into the house, where I met other girls and I was told I would be taken abroad as a house maid. They were forcing us to have sex with strange men, who have been impregnating the girls,” she said.

“Once a baby is delivered, the child is taken away. We are not allowed to go out because of heavy security. I have delivered babies twice since I was held in 2018.”  

Chidera Onoha, another victim from Ofada, Mowe, Ogun, southwest Nigeria, said she was lured to the factory with the promise of a job at a restaurant in Lagos. 

“When I arrived at the home in Mowe, I met other young ladies who were pregnant. When I inquired to know the purpose of being there, they told me that the woman owner had bought me,” she said.

“The day I got to the home, the woman collected my phone and removed the SIM card and battery to prevent people from calling me.”

The notorious human trafficking syndicate that specialises in selling babies to prospective buyers continues to proffer different reasons for their actions.

A couple, Chucks Obi and his wife Joy, who were in the business of scouting for pregnant teenagers in communities in Rivers, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Imo states, were recently arrested by the police. 

Joy, a 45-year-old nurse who lives in the oil city of Port Harcourt and a native of Imo state, said she was introduced into the business by another woman, Beatrice, who is on the run. 

“Beatrice introduced the business to me. She also brought the girls and sold the babies. I don’t know where she got the girls, but my job was to look after them and when they were due for delivery, I would deliver them,” she said.

“Beatrice would then take the babies to whoever had paid for them and I would tell the girls that their babies were dead and give them money to return home.”

One of the arrested customers confessed to buying two babies, a baby and a girl, for $7,000 (N3.5 million).

Buy babies 

Anthony Osaze, who had been married for 15 years, explained that he and his wife used the services of a baby factory instead of going to an orphanage because adopting babies had been very difficult because of the stringent requirements. 

“I have been going to an orphanage in Lagos for four years without any results. They do not have new babies, so I was introduced to a nursing home, where I paid the money for the two babies,” he said, according an official police report provided to the media.

“Although I do not know the mothers of the babies, they were given to me at the factory. I promised I will take good care of them.’’

Before picking up the children, he said, his wife had feigned a pregnancy for eight months so that relatives and friends would not suspect them of buying the babies. 

The inspector-general of the police special intelligence response team and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons have been on the trail of operators of such illegal homes across Nigeria, especially in the epicentres of Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo states. 

The inspector-general of police had directed all assistant inspectors-general in charge of zonal commands, commissioners of police and other police field commanders to find ways of ending the illegal business. 

The office ordered that all motherless babies’ homes and centres in their respective domains be properly monitored so as to curtail the trafficking in babies.

Police operations

In one operation, police on July 14 said Augustina Onyenwe, 60, was arrested on July 7 for allegedly running a baby factory in the Isolo area of Lagos state. 

Hakeem Odumosu, the commissioner of police in Lagos, paraded the suspects, including the proprietor, Onyenwe, who was accused of keeping young pregnant women to produce babies for sale. 

The victims, aged 12 and 20, were sent protective custody while the suspect were arraigned, Mr Odumosu explained. 

The police command in Anambra in southeast Nigeria on March 11 also busted a baby factory at Otolo, Nnewi. Four pregnant girls were rescued. 

Police also raided another baby factory in Anantigha, Calabar South, rescuing 24 pregnant women and 11 babies, and arrested two suspects on February. 10. 

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has shuttered many other baby factories across the country, including Nwamaka Herbal Centre, located at Ikpokwu, in Abia State. 

It also shut down an illegal medical outfit, Akuchi Herbal Concept in New Nyanyan, Abuja, where a self-acclaimed chief medical director was arrested. 

The spike may have been caused by poverty because those arrested have explained they were lured into it with money. 

A medical doctor and an analyst, Dr Peter Adebayo, said some orphanages are also points of sale for babies because they attract little suspicion. 

“It is common knowledge that many orphanages also engage in selling babies to couples,” he said.

“There are cases of teenage girls being impregnated by jobless boys and left to bear the brunt. Not having the means to take care of their babies, many of these girls are paid off by criminals to hand over their babies for sale.”

NAPTIP Director-General Basheer Mohammed called for tighter adoption and child-protection laws.

He promised to build on existing policies and cooperating with other security agencies.