“When we raided the hospital, we found four women who had been staying at the clinic for up to three years, to breed babies,” NSDCS boss for Enugu state commandant Desmond Agu said.
The doctor, whom police named, “had been inviting boys to come and impregnate girls,” said Agu.
This was just one of around a dozen centers — masquerading as maternity clinics, foster homes, orphanages or shelters for homeless pregnant girls — unearthed in recent months where babies were swapped for cash, said the NAPTITP boss.
Last month police swooped on a so-called foster home, not far from the Enugu police headquarters, where seven pregnant teenage girls and five workers were rounded up, residents said.
In 2005, a Lagos-based orphanage suspected of ties to child trafficking rings, was shut down.
There, charred baby bones were discovered on the rubbish tip, leading to suspicion the orphanage was involved in the peddling of human body parts, possibly for use in rituals or for organ harvesting.
In other cases observers say babies are purchased to be raised for child labor and sexual abuse or prostitution.
A PROFITABLE BUSINESS
Trafficking in humans has become a lucrative trade.
Globally, it is estimated that billions of dollars exchange hands annually in payment for humans, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and several UN agencies.
Witchcraft rituals also fuel baby trafficking, but experts say it is other motives that predominate, at least in this region of Nigeria.
Communities frown on children born out of wedlock and childlessness in marriage remains a curse for the woman.
“In the Igbo society, the price to remain childless is too high,” said clinical psychologist Peter Egbigbo.
“Childless people want to pay any amount for a child and doctors become rich over night,” he said, adding that those who are ready to adopt a baby would rather hide the fact that it is not their biological child.
Exchanging babies for cash is widespread in the region and in many cases locals do not see anything wrong in so doing.
“Many people don’t even know what they are doing is criminal. They just think it’s adoption — you walk into a clinic, pay a fee and you have a baby,” said Okoronkwo.
Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.
It is estimated that globally hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked annually.
UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, estimates that at least 10 children are sold daily across Nigeria, where human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime after economic fraud and drug trafficking.
RSS