A sixteen-year-old girl who was lured to a maternity home in Okwue area of Asaba along-side other girls, has narrated how they were promised N50,000 each to make babies for the operators of the home.
She made the revelation after operatives of Asaba Vigilante Group stormed the baby factory and arrested the operators and the victims at the weekend.
The girl, who gave her name as Amarachi (surname withheld), revealed that the operator of the home would usually invite men to get them pregnant and, upon delivery, they would each be given the sum of N50, 000 to part with the baby. She said some of the customers are ritualists.
Another victim of the baby factory operator, Chinonye Linus, 22, said the operator of the home offered to assist her when her boyfriend denied responsibility for her pregnancy, adding that she later promised to pay her N50,000 upon delivery.
LEADERSHIP investigation revealed that the operator of the home works with a suspected buyer, known as Benedict, and a medical doctor from Onitsha whose duty is to deliver the girls of the babies, using his hospital as a contact point to sell the babies to ritualists or any interested buyer.
Speaking to newsmen on the matter, the vigilante Chairman, Mr. Nnamdi Chukwuedo, narrated how they discovered the baby factory, rescued the victims and arrested one of the suspects, adding that though the operator escaped, one of the buyers who came to inspect the girls was arrested.
Police spokesman in the state Mr. Charles Muka, who confirmed the arrest, said three suspects simply identified as Chinonye, 20, from Imo State, obele, 22, from Enugu State; and Amarachi, 16, from Ebonyi State, all pregnant were picked from the home. He said that one late Dr. Humphrey of Messiah Foundation Hospital, Onitsha, was named as the person that brought them.
He said one Gladys Asoh Ndu, 45, who owns the illegal home was also arrested, adding that efforts were on to arrest the woman that ran the illegal home and other accomplices.
Meanwhile, a couple in Umunede Ika South Local Government Area of the state has been arrested for allegedly selling their 7-day-old baby to fund the treatment of a sick older son.
Police authorities in the area said that Mabel and her husband (surname withheld) including three others were arrested on a tip-off.
The couple upon interrogation, the couple said it was poverty forced them to give up their new born baby to pay for the treatment of their two-year-old son.
Although the police confirmed that they were subsequently released, it was disclosed that some neighbours who had been married for years without a child, offered the couple N200, 000.
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