Last week, April 2, 2013, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NCSDC) staff in Abia State busted a baby factory in Abia State and arrested 32 pregnant teenagers together with the owner of the home, Mrs Nnenna Mba and two male workers.
At the baby factory, babies are bought from their mothers at the rate of N100,000 for a baby boy, then a baby girl for N80, 000.
They are sold to interested buyers at N450, 000 and N400, 000 respectively.
The girls , whose ages range between 10 and 20 were believed to have run to the home after getting pregnant without the knowledge of their parents or were impregnated at the home by visiting males employed by the proprietor of the home.
Speaking to Daily Sun at the office of the NSCDC, the Commandant, Mr Ben E. Dikuro said that his men stormed the home and arrested the teenage girls and the proprietor on Tuesday.
We gathered from a tip-off that girls who get pregnant are lured to the home with rosy promises of compensation when they deliver. Also young girls who needed money are also convinced to get pregnant and deliver the child and be paid some amount of money. The young girls are also allowed to sleep with some of the men they brought to the home.
Our investigation revealed that she has been operating the home since 2009 but was able to register it in 2012. The aim of the registration was to run the outlet as a home for the less privileged, but she was hiding under that cover to perpetrate atrocities. All the girls we caught there are at various stages of pregnancy.
We have gone to the Ministry of Women Affairs and discovered that her registration is different from what she is doing.”
One of the teenage girls seen at the entrance of the building told Weekly Trust that:
Our madam (Mrs. Mba) is detained in Umuahia by men of Civil Defence. She is innocent as she only assisting childless couples from Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt by selling male and female babies at an agreed fee, thus she settles the mother of the baby and takes the balance of the money
She claimed that her madam would soon be released by the security agent as this is not the first time she has been arrested. “They would release her to continue her service,” she said.
Meanwhile, the proprietor of the home, Mrs. Mba, who spoke to Daily Sun argued that she was not doing any illegal thing.
She said her ordeal was the handiwork of her enemies who were not happy that she was running a legal outfit.
“I registered this home with Ministry of Women Affairs in December 2012, the Women Affairs came and inspected the place and certified it fit. The area we are attending to the girls is the social aspect of our job.
I have never sold any baby since we started. Many of them were conscious before coming to us, they were not hoodwinked into coming and they didn’t sign any document for us as agreement.
If any of them delivers and they want to give out their child, it will be a matter between them and the authorities that are in charge of adoption. We only act as intermediaries.
They are all conscious. I did not force them, I am a qualified nurse.”
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