Soldiers from the 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army busted a notorious “baby factory” in the Gariki area of Enugu, the capital of Enugu State, last weekend. The factory posed as a hospital, one of our sources said.
A military source told SaharaReporters that a unit of soldiers were sent to the location of the factory after one of the victims had tipped off the army. The young woman who reportedly exposed the “baby factory” had managed to escape from the breeding house in the city. Our source disclosed that the army raided the clinic and found at least ten pregnant women held against their will as they awaited childbirth. According to the source, after the women delivered, the babies were taken from them by the operators of the baby factory and sold.
The escaped victim said she had been introduced to a woman identified as a “nurse” and who was to help her deliver her baby. A month later, she delivered a baby. As soon as she was able to stand up, she was asked to go and take a shower. But on returning to the delivery room, she found to her horror that her newborn baby had disappeared.
She stated that the nurse running the baby factory offered her N120,000 and told her that her baby had been given to those who could not biologically have babies.
After arresting the operator of the factory, Chinyere Nome, the soldiers handed her over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
SaharaReporters learned that the army unit that raided the hospital that served as the factory saw and rescued 10 women locked up inside a high-rise fenced compound in Gariki, Enugu. The victims reported that nobody who came into the facility ever left without delivering her baby. “Any girl who came in would not be allowed to go outside again until after delivery,” one victim said.
A source told SaharaReporters that the soldiers from 82 Division arrived at the compound around 8 a.m., using as a decoy a young woman who pretended to be pregnant and looking for a nurse to abort the pregnancy. When the operator of the baby factory answered the door, she was rushed by soldiers hiding inside a tinted bus. Our correspondent learned that the soldiers drew their weapons as they stormed out of their parked bus.
After gaining entry into the heavily secured facility, the soldiers found a mini-clinic and several young women at various stages of pregnancy.
Three of the women were within five days of delivery at the time of the rescue.
A source said the operator of the factory sold each baby for between N300,000 and N400,000.