Six persons have been arrested in Edo State for alleged involvement in baby factory activities.
Officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) arrested Joy Ufunwen Enadeghe, three nurses of Grace Maternity Home in Upper Sakponba, Tarah Okogbuwa, the baby’s mother and her boyfriend following a tip-off.
The suspects were alleged to have been involved in the sale of two babies delivered at the maternity home.
Edo Commander of NAPTIP, Nduka Nwanene, who confirmed the incident, said that the six suspects were in the agency’s custody.
He said the baby’s mother, who was accompanied by her boyfriend, petitioned NAPTIP that she met the principal suspect in 2020, when she was pregnant, and took her to the maternity home for delivery, after which Enadeghe and Okogbuwa, who delivered her of the baby, forcibly took the baby from her, and pushed her out of the maternity at night.
Nwanene said that Okogbuwa took the baby home and told her husband that she had been delivered of a baby boy.
He said: “The victim narrated her story to a Keke NAPEP rider, who harboured her before going back to her parents in Nnewi, Anambra State.
“When her parents asked her of the newborn baby, she came back to Benin to meet with the Keke NAPEP rider, who harboured her, instead of going to meet with the suspect to demand her baby. They became friends and relocated from Benin to Aghalokpe in Delta State, and were living as husband and wife.”
Commander of NAPTIP in Edo also stated that the principal suspect, who was feeling insecure that the baby’s biological mother might resurface to demand the child, asked her to come, so she coud open a shop for her.
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He said: “When the baby’s biological mother told her that she was no longer in Benin, the principal suspect then asked her to send her account details, in order to send her money for business of her choice.
“The victim, who was almost due for delivery, told the principal suspect that she did not have account details, and then asked her to send POS operator’s account details around her, so that she could send the money through POS.
“She sent the victim N100,000 through the POS, but when she went to withdraw the money, some persons, sent by the principal suspect, abducted her with the pregnancy.
“Few days after the baby’s biological mother was brought to Benin, she went into labour and was taken to the same maternity home, where she had earlier been delivered of a baby, and was also delivered of another baby boy in April.”
Nwanene also revealed that the principal suspect and the nurse took the baby away, on the guise of taking him to a good hospital for jaundice treatment, but sold the baby, and told the mother that the baby died, but on noticing the countenance of the victim, they planned to kill her, in order to conceal the crime.
He said: “The suspects hired a Keke NAPEP rider to kill the victim at night, but the man took pity on her, and took her to a hotel, where they harboured girls for human trafficking, while she escaped, when policemen raided the hotel, and went back to meet the Keke NAPEP man, whom she had been living with.
“During investigation, NAPTIP discovered that the principal suspect sold the second baby for N500,000 in Benin, and gave the nurse N150,000.
“The agency also discovered that the victim was being used as baby factory, as she was given money after the sale of the babies, and working together with the principal suspect and was aware that she was being used as baby factory. She was delivered of babies in 2020, 2021 and 2023, but they claimed the 2021 baby died after birth.
“The supposed victim with her boyfriend kept collecting money from the principal suspect, threatening to tell her husband that she was not the biological mother of the children.”
NAPTIP’s commander in Edo also revealed that one of the two babies had been recovered, while the agency was making frantic efforts to recover the second baby, with he suspects to be charged to court, for the law to take its course.