Police raided a suspected baby factory in Aba, southeastern Abia, and found 32 pregnant teenage girls who were reportedly dragooned into a baby-selling business under the watch of Dr. Hyacinth Orikara of the Cross Foundation.
Police raided a suspected baby factory in Aba, southeastern Abia, and found 32 pregnant teenage girls who were reportedly dragooned into a baby-selling business under the watch of Dr. Hyacinth Orikara of the Cross Foundation.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
It was the second such arrest for Dr. Orikara who claims that his clinic is an adoption agency where girls with unwanted pregnancies receive help and the children get new parents.
But sources describe the clinic as a link in a human-trafficking ring with infants being “farmed” and sold.
Police arrested Orikara last week-end on a tip-off by a concerned citizen.
Orikara, proprietor of the Cross Foundation, is likely to face charges of child abuse and human trafficking, police said. Buying or selling babies can carry a 14-year jail sentence.
Orikara graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1998 and is also an employee of the Abia State Health Management Board in Umuahia, the state capital. According to him, his charity home is run in consultation with the welfare department of the state government.
The case is likely to involve the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and the police.
Human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime in Nigeria after financial fraud and drug trafficking. At least 10 children are sold every day across the country, according to the UN. Traffickers are seldom caught.
Mothers receive less than $200 per child. They are then sold for up to $6,400 a piece, depending on the sex.
Babies are sold for up to $6,400 each, depending on the sex, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons says. Teenagers with unplanned pregnancies are sometimes lured to clinics and then forced to hand over their babies.
The girls were reportedly about to turn over their babies in exchange for money. The children – ranging in age from 15 to 17 were in the care of Hyacinth Orikara, of Heda Clinic in Aba, southeastern state of Abia in Nigeria have been arrested for allegedly belonging to a human –trafficking ring in which babies were sold for adoption and ritual purposes.
The arrest last week-end, followed a tip-off that infants were being “farmed” and sold police sources said.
Dr Orikara claimed the clinic was an adoption agency were girls with unwanted pregnancies received help and the children handed over to a nameless social welfare office.
The 33 individuals will be either charged on Friday or handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of trafficking in Persons for more investigation.
Depending on the sex of the babies, the prices ranged from $160 - $190 each and in the past most of the babies were trafficked to Europe mostly in the United Kingdom where they were part of welfare fraud schemes.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });