Immediately officials at the us embassy clamped eyes on the couple, they had a hunch that the twin was not theirs. They ordered for a DNA and it came out negative; showing that the couple could not possibly be the parents of the kids.
But Elizabeth Soyibo, the self-acclaimed mother of the twins insisted that she gave birth to the children.
She even breastfed one of the twins in the presence of journalists to drive home her argument that she is actually the mother. The woman challenged the police for another round of DNA test. She said she was not convinced of the authenticity of the first test.
“I can still say it anywhere that I am the mother of the babies and there are other people who were there when I gave birth to them.
“If I am not their mother, how can I be breast feeding them?” she asked.
She added: “I paid N1.5 million into the woman’s account and paid the balance of N300, 000 to Mrs Helen in Port Harcourt.”
Elizabeth had also told SFU detectives that when she went to Port Harcourt, the people she paid money to, gave her local herbs(Agbo), which she felt might have interfered with the blood stream of the babies to make their DNA negative to hers and her husband.
But just two weeks after the arrest of Mr. and Mrs. Soyibo, Area ‘E’ Police Command, Festac, Lagos State, arrested one Oby George, 50.
The story of George soon proved that Elizabeth, who sincerely believed she delivered a set of twin, was actually scammed.
George was arrested for feeding desperate barren women with seeds/herbs which made them to look pregnant and later steal babies to hand over to them(women) after a ‘cooked up labour’ and ‘delivery’ session.
It was gathered that once these desperate, aging, barren women go to George, believing she had herbs which could defy medicine and make them pregnant and have normal babies, she would give them some mysterious seeds and herbs to be taking orally.
The seed will make their stomachs and legs to begin to swell, which many of them believed are really signs of pregnancy.
George would warn them never to go for scan or visit any hospital for check up, or ante-natal. She was also the person who would tell them when they were due for delivery.
On delivery day, she would give them another seed, which would make them to start vomiting and go to the toilet. After wards she would ask them to lie on table and to start pushing because the baby was already coming.
Just to make them believe that their babies were coming; George would push a fist into their privates and would keep shouting at them to push. It was gathered that some of the women used to lose consciousness during the supposed ‘labour,’ apparently due to the seed they had ingested earlier and weakness from incessant vomiting and stooling.
To drive home the point that they had actually delivered, she would slice their private parts with blade, so that they would see blood when they recovered their wits. The women would later be compelled to use pad after the ‘labour’ and ‘delivery.’
Till date, George is yet to open up on the type of seeds or herbs she used to give the women to make them look pregnant. She had only told police that she used to mix three types of herbs to give the women.
Nobody knows the health implications of these herbs. Daily Newswatch gathered that some of the women, who were held at Festac Police Station, to testify on their experiences with George, suddenly started swelling again, even after the supposed ‘baby delivery’ and were quickly ordered by the Area E Commander, Mr. Dan Okoro, to be rushed to hospital.
There is no doubt that this scam had been going on for decades now. One of the victims explained that she got Georges’ contact from someone living overseas.
In Abeokuta, Ogun State, five years ago, a nurse, who had been searching for fruit of the womb for years, went to Port Harcourt and came back months later with a baby boy. The boy is now almost six years old. She told friends how she was given herbs, got pregnant and later had her baby boy.
Like all the other modus operandi of the syndicate, the nurse paid millions into a certain account.
It is clear that George is not the only one running this syndicate. It could be a big network, criss-crossing several states.
While George continued to play mouse and rat game with the police, the market of stealing and selling babies continue to grow.
There is no doubt that these miracle babies, which are handed to these desperate women, seeking for children, are stolen or bought.
This means that police should begin to beam their search light on baby factories, which are springing up all over the eastern parts of the country. Baby factories are definitely one of the fertile sources of supplying babies.
If the police hope to conquer this apparently formidable syndicate, there should be inter-net working among the sister forces. Also, Police in one state, should be ready to work together with police in another. This is not time for self seeking glory, for the issue at stake is huge.
This war against baby traffickers is not going to be an easy one for the police, since baby buying and selling market has a huge demand and is presently a money spinner in Nigeria today, with biological parents even now selling their born and unborn babies.
George and her partners continued to prosper and get away with this scam, because they preyed on the desperation of the women. A desperate mind, will believe anything.
Adoption is not a crime, but couples, who want children, no matter how desperate they are, should be able to detect fraud, if they too are not criminally minded.
Ignorance of the law is never an excuse anywhere in the world. There are due processes to adoption. Those processes should be followed.
Perhaps this crime could be curbed, if state governments make the processes of adoption less stressful and tedious. A lady complained that she was asked by Lagos State government to go and get tax clearance spanning five years before she could adopt a baby in the state.
Police, while helping in adoption, should try as much as possible to make sure it’s legal and not follow ‘back way,’ where money and babies exchange hands without documents or government involvement.
There is also the issue of illegal orphanage homes. This is the part where government need to seriously investigate. Even most of the legal ones are even now buying into the illegal baby racket trade because of the money involved. Sending government spies to go undercover in some orphanages, to find what out is going on, is not a bad idea.
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