SIXTEEN
pregnant girls have been rescued from a ‘Baby Factory’ in Aba, the
commercial city of Abia state by the Abia state Command of Directorate
of State Service,DSS. Aba and its environs have of recent become
notorious for illegal charity homes where babies are delivered and sold
to buyers who are always available to patronize the business.
According
to the state Director of DSS, Mr. Matthew Obodoechi, who paraded the
young girls yesterday at the Command’s state Headquarters, Umuahia, the
girls whose ages range between 17 and 37 years, were rescued on Monday
from a ‘charity home’. Obodoechi said that they were rescued from
a charity home, named Cross Foundation International, located along
Anyamele Street in Umungasi area of Aba.
He gave the name of the proprietor of the baby factory home as Dr. Hyginus Ndudim Orikara, who also has been arrested.
The DSS Director has also vowed that the medical practitioner, Orikara, would be prosecuted.
The
Medical Doctor is said to be an employee of Abia state Government, that
has been actively involved in the fight against this menace in the
state.
Obodoechi expressed great concern, affirming that the
issue of baby factory has emerged as a new trend of crime in Abia state
and other parts of the South East.
His words: “It is another kind
of kidnapping where babies are snatched at point of birth and sold. It
is a big shame, a big problem and it all boils down to the kind of
values we have in the society today, life is not valued”, Obodoechi
lamented.
However, the proprietor of the home, Dr.
Orikara denied running a baby factory. He claimed that his Cross
Foundation was legitimately registered as a charity home.
According
to him, babies were not sold in home after delivery, but were usually
released to their mothers to go home and nurse them.
He defended
the large number of pregnant girls at the charity home, saying that it
was because “we are running operation nurse your own baby”.
Dr.
Orikara also claimed that girls with unwanted pregnancy brought to the
home were usually encouraged and assisted to cope with their
pregnancies, deliver them and nurse the babies.
However,
Obodoechi dismissed Dr. Orikara’s claim saying that confessional
statements made by the pregnant ladies have revealed that the doctor was
indeed operating a full-time baby factory business.
He disclosed
that the ladies “upon delivery are given a paltry sum of N50, 000 and
sent away, while their babies are sold to people from different parts of
the country”.
The DSS Director regretted that some people have
chosen to hide under the cover of non-governmental organizations,NGOs
“to perpetrate various forms of illegal activities, including baby
factories”.
According to him, “those hiding under the cover of
NGOs to perpetrate modern form of slave trade are warned to abstain from
such illegalities as security agencies will stop at nothing but to
ensure that they are apprehended and made to face the law”.
Obodoechi
advised the public “to desist from encouraging pregnant ladies to go to
‘baby factories’ for whatever reason, whether financial or otherwise”.