The wife who lives in Port Harcourt said she was introduced into the trade by a woman who is on the run. Last month, police arrested a couple suspected of running illegal baby factories in Rivers, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Imo states. I have delivered babies twice since I was held in 2018,’’ she said.

Once a baby is delivered, it is taken away. “They forced us to have sex with strange men, whose impregnate the girls. Loveth, one of the 23 girls rescued in Otolo, Nnewi in Imo state South East Nigeria, said: “I was lured to the house where I met other girls and I was told I would be taken abroad as house maid.’’ They sold my baby and one other for $5,000 (N2.5 million),’’ she told police interviewers. They locked me up in a room with some other girls. They gave me an injection that induced the pregnancy. “A woman known as Precious took me in and located me in a church where I stayed for one month and I was delivered of my child. Dumped by boyfriendįavour, an 18-year-old secondary school graduate, and one of the girls rescued in one of such factories located in a church in Port Harcourt said she was dumped by her boyfriend after getting pregnant. Operators of these factories lure unsuspecting women into the business with promises of a better life, outright abduction or force. Male children are more expensive because of the craze for sons in Nigeria.” Mr Alabi Aruna, a detective, who led a sting operation in Calabar, Cross River state in South South region, last December, reported that operators sell babies for between N1,500,000 ($3,125) and N3,500,000 ($7,260) depending on the sex of the baby. It thrives in South East, South South, South West, North Central regions. The trade in children is largely patronised by childless couples and sometimes people of goodwill corrupted by evil intentions for a lucrative business. These snake-oil salespersons operate from shanties, church-run properties, illegal nursing homes, and residential houses, profiting from the gullibility of poor women. Since they ignore adoption protocols, the authorities have labelled this human trafficking. Here is where men are hired to impregnate women to sire infants who are then sold off to rich families. “All the victims confessed that they were lured to the illicit sale of children because of financial challenges,” said the investigating officers.ĭespite a crackdown, ‘baby factories’ thrive in Nigeria. Rivers Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko said the suspects were arrested following a tip-off that led to the raid of the two houses where the victims of child trafficking were kept.Īccording to police, investigations revealed that when a victim was delivered of her baby, the syndicate leader kept the child and paid the mother N500,000 ($1,100). The crackdown in Obio/Akpor last month also saw two women aged 30 and 40 arrested and 19 pregnant women rescued.

That was until a 17-year-old was caught in homestead where he was ‘assigned’ to impregnate ten young women in Nigeria’s Rivers State. Nigeria police thought they had wiped out the baby factory menace.

Black baby girls