31st December, 2013
In their desperation to satisfy their customers, some medical doctors force girls to deliver prematurely. The Commissioner of Police, Imo State Police Command gave the hint in an interview with our reporter.
According to Muhammad Musa Katsina, such doctors induce the girls to labour, using crude delivery methods so as to get the babies to sell to buyers.
Giving an example of a child trafficking case involving a teenager brought to his attention, the Commissioner said: ‘‘the consent of the teenager was obtained by fraud. Immediately she enterd the place, she found herself in the middle of nowhere. The baby was forced out of the womb of this innocent girl and given to the nocturnal buyer. They don’t buy in the day time. That baby, the placenta and everything was taken away.’’
The end point of the children has been traced to shrines. The police boss also explained that due to the clampdown on baby factories, the perpetrators have devised new means of carrying out their activities. Such tricks include, stealing children from their parents, luring kids with goodies or kidnapping of babies.
Imo and Abia states have been yoked with baby factories. Last year, the Imo State police raided the Ahamefule Motherless Babies Home, in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo Sate, where at least 27 girls were freed.
In Aba, Abia State, Dr. Orikara who had had long battles with security agencies, had his clinic, Cross Foundation Hospital closed down for operating an illegal charity home after teenagers were freed from there.
A few weeks ago, James Ezuma, a 65 year-old medical doctor, was arrested in Owerri and 16 girls, some of them at various stages of pregnancies, freed from his supposed hospital and charity home.
Ezuma is said to be the biggest child trafficker in the southeast. He owns chains of hospitals and non-governmental organisations under whose guise he carries out his illicit acts.
The sheer degree of his crime led the Abia State government to demolish his five-storey building in Aba.
—Nkrumah Bankong-Obi/Owerri