Nigerians are becoming used to hearing shocking stories of women and men selling and buying babies. Many have been arrested and yet the trade has continued to boom, with perpetrators laughing all the way to the banks, writes JULIANA FRANCIS
The baby's cries sliced through the room, startling everyone. The ‘mum’ gently placed her on a left shoulder, while trying to soothe and calm her with a caressing right hand. But both hands were shaking badly as her agitation became obvious.
Nobody was sure if the baby, who was lovingly wrapped in a white fluffy wrap, was crying to be fed or because she sensed the distress of her ‘mum.’
The mum, Mrs Alabi, has been crying since she walked into the room, clutching the baby possessively. She looked scared and the reasons are obvious to the reporter. Alabi didn’t want to lose the baby, didn’t want her husband to find out the truth about the baby and also didn’t want to go to prison.
However, she was smart enough to sense that the way the cookies were crumbling, were not in her favour. Although the baby is just a month old, Alabi has bonded with her.
Alabi rocked the baby, trying to quiet her, but nobody could soothe or quieten Alabi. The broken-hearted woman wept loudly. She has cried to the point of spotting red nose and eyes.
She was arrested by operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for buying a-day-old baby for N350,000.
She had painstakingly saved every dime she had, just waiting for the birth of the baby. The biological mother of the baby, Doris, is mentally challenged. Doris’ two sisters, Chioma and Juliet, connived to sell the baby to Alabi.
Alabi got to know about Doris when the latter was almost due. She was introduced to Doris’ family by a friend, identified as Efe, a pastor’s wife. When Alabi was sure the deal would sail through, she went to buy babies' wears and other accessories.
She told our reporter that before she met Doris and her sisters, she had gone to many places in her quest to get pregnant and carried out varied instructions given to her.
In fact, at one of the places she went to, she was given different stuffs to drink and strange substances injected into her. The substances led to her becoming ‘pregnant,’ but she was not really pregnant.
She has been searching for the fruit of the womb for over 10 years, without success. When her stomach started growing, she thought she was finally pregnant, but decided not to live in denial. She accepted the fact that she was not pregnant. Her belly was protruding like that of a pregnant woman. People around her praised God on her behalf, happy that God has finally blessed her.
When she realised that the injection and other stuffs failed to produce pregnancy, Alabi cried.
“My childlessness was affecting my marriage. My marriage was on the brink. I was worried and desperate. I went to my friend, Efe, and told her my predicament," she told New Telegraph.
Efe took her to Doris’ sisters, Juliet and Chioma. Juliet and Chioma agreed to sell Doris’ unborn baby to Alabi.
Alabi called her husband via phone, a frequent traveller, and announced to him that she was finally pregnant; that God has finally blessed them. She told him that it was due to the last treatment she had gone for, where she was injected. The husband bought her story.
When Doris' baby was born, her sisters immediately handed the baby over to an ecstatic Alabi. She went home to a wild jubilation from friends and family members.
About four weeks after the naming ceremony, she heard a knock on her door. Her husband has travelled again. She opened the door and saw NAPTIP operatives.
Incidentally, the baby was the fifth stolen from Doris by unknown persons.
Choking on emotions, Alabi said: “I’ve been married for 10 years. I have tried everything to conceive all to no avail. I’m 45 years old. I’m getting old. I need someone that would be with me in my old age. My home, marriage has become broken. There’s no peace. I called and told my friend what I was going through in my marriage. She told me that there was a lady in a family, who couldn’t take care of her baby. The woman was still pregnant when I was taken to her. My husband was not aware of the transaction. I only told him that I had given birth. I was tired of the pains and mockery from people. I have been to everywhere and done everything, but to no avail. In fact, the last one I did which was Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), was also unsuccessful. I didn’t know what else to do. I called Efe and told her what I have been going through in the hands of my husband and everyone around me. I wanted to see how I could adopt a child, which I can train and call mine.
“She said she didn’t have any idea, but she later called and told me that there was a family with a pregnant sister, who couldn’t take care of her baby. She called me in November, but I was told that the lady would be due in January. I bought baby things. I did everything in such a way that nobody will call the child a bastard. I was already on the treatment that made me look big and pregnant. I saw an opportunity and used it. I didn’t know it will land me in trouble.”
Efe, who introduced herself as a Master’s Degree holder in Criminology, said that everything she did was out of pity for Alabi and Doris.
After Alabi poured out her heart to her, Efe felt she could help her and also help Doris’ baby. She told Alabi that she had no idea how adoption was done but that she knew of a family with a mentally challenged sister who was then pregnant.
“Doris’ sisters told me that she had given birth to four previous children, but because of her condition, the babies were stolen from her. They told me that they had discussed with their elder brother, who said he didn’t have money to seek treatment for Doris. They said that they needed someone who could take care of the baby. I assisted them to find somebody and they collected N350, 000. They brought the baby to my friend,” Efe told New Telegraph.
Alabi’s case is an example of what many women do in their quest to have babies. Investigations showed that going through legal processes to adopt a baby, through ministries of youths and social welfare in states, takes between two and three years.
Many of these desperate women don’t want to wait that long. Like Alabi, most Nigerians shy away from adoption because they don’t want the baby to be called a ‘bastard.’
Moreover, government officials can decide not to give consent to the adoption of the baby even after the tedious legal processes for one reason or another. In the adoption processes, government officials hold all the cards. These are some reasons that make people or couples to resort to buying babies.
Baby trafficking is a subset of human trafficking and it continues to boom in Nigeria because there are ready and available markets for sellers and buyers. But majorly because emphasised is placed on child bearing. Childless couples, especially in Africa, are often mocked.
Most times, premium is also placed on bearing a male child. A woman, who has repeatedly given birth to girls, may do everything possible, including partnering with traffickers to buy a male child for her husband or pass it off as hers.
In Africa, it is believed that male children are traditionally qualified to inherit parents’ property and give continuance to the name of the father’s family.
Baby trafficking also continues to escalate because many Nigerians do not want to embrace surrogacy, in vitro fertilisation, assisted reproductive technology or adoption through government ministries.
According to police detectives, baby trafficking rings are prevalent in Anambra, Abia, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Enugu, Ondo and Ogun states to mention but a few. It has also been discovered that due to the insecurity in some parts of Nigeria, internally displaced children are frequently stolen and sold.
A few years ago, babies were sold for as high as N1 million, N1.5 million, N2 million, N3 million or more.
Today, babies are sold in virtually every part of Nigeria for as low as N250,000, N100,000, N30,000, N25,000 or less.
The traffickers, most times, operate baby factories dressed in borrowed robes of ‘orphanages.’ It is a business of little investment, but much profit. Traffickers often target children between ages 0-5 years old.
Underaged girls, who find themselves in the family way, go to such ‘orphanages’ to have their babies and sell to waiting traffickers. Sometimes, different girls are kept in such homes to be impregnated by total strangers. After they are delivered of their babies, they are paid off while the babies are sold to couples looking for fruits of the womb.
At other times, some of these girls are abducted, held captive in such homes and repeatedly raped. Once they get pregnant and are delivered of their babies, the babies are forcibly taken from them and sold.
More shocking is the discovery that some couples, out of poverty, sell their biological children. Some give excuses of having too many children, but no money to fend for them. They argue that it is better to sell one of the children and use the proceeds to fend for others.
One of such parents is 22-year-old Blessing Chukwu. She sold her daughter to raise money to fend for other children. Chukwu, who said she already had four children, added that she had no husband. She sold her baby girl for N190,000 three weeks after delivery. But how far can N190,000 go in fending for the four remaining children?
Baby trafficking, a money-spinning venture, has become so widespread that children are now being stolen at worship centres, homes, neighbourhoods, streets, IDP camps, hospitals, saloons, schools, etc.
Presently, due to the poor or lack of data-gathering system in Nigeria, there’s no available data on the number of missing or stolen children stolen in the country. Stakeholders, however, especially law enforcement officers, agree that the prevalence of the acts is now mind-boggling.
The saddest aspect is that while a stolen child brings joy to a childless couple; sadness envelops the home where the baby was stolen.
As security agents are coming up new strategies to beat traffickers at their game, these traffickers keep evolving new tricks.
The latest modus operandi is for them to rent an apartment in a compound or community and become friendly with a couple who has a baby or toddler.
They do this to earn the trust of the couple. Once the couple lower their guards, the traffickers steal the baby and disappear, never to return to that apartment or community.
They leave fake names and contacts on forms given to them to fill by landlords before an apartment is given to them. Once these traffickers abscond from the apartment, the first thing they do is to discard their SIM cards.
They move the baby out of the state, to a waiting buyer, who then takes the baby to the final receiver, who is the awaiting “new mum.”
Sometimes, the baby goes through multiple buyers before reaching its final ‘mum and dad.’ Baby prices range according to its gender. Male babies are more expensive than their female counterparts.
Mr. Emeka Ekiri and his wife, Rejoice, told our reporter how their seven-month-old baby, Chinwendu Ekiri, was stolen by traffickers using the aforementioned modus operandi.
Chinwendu was stolen from her parents’ home in Rivers State. Unlike other unfortunate couples, the Ekiris were lucky to find Chinwendu 114 days after she was stolen. The baby was stolen by their ‘neighbour,’ Mr. Innocent Ndubuisi.
After stealing the baby, Ndubuisi vanished, plunging mother and father into unimaginable agony. Ndubuisi stole Chinwendu just weeks after moving into the compound.
Emeka said: “My daughter was sold and resold for different prices ranging from N450,000, to N600,000 and N850,000.
"The case of my stolen daughter was reported to the Department of State Services (DSS) after several efforts by the Nigeria Police to find her failed. According to the DSS operatives, Ndubuisi, who stole her, contacted one Shadrach. Shadrach got in touch with a woman in Onuimo, Imo State. She paid Ndubuisi N450,000. While sealing the deal with Shadrach and the woman, Ndubuisi threw in his handset. It was through that handset that DSS operatives were able to track and arrest Shadrach. Shadrach took the operatives to the woman, who then took them to Aba, where she had already sold Chinwendu to another woman called Esther for N600,000.”
Before Esther was tracked and arrested at Elele, in Port Harcourt, she too had also sold Chinwendu to another woman in Ogoja, Cross Rivers State for N850,000."
On her part, Rejoice said that her life was shattered and appeared to be on hold after her baby was stolen.
She said: “Some minutes after I came out with my child, our neighbour, Ndubusi, came out from his apartment. We greeted each other. I was washing clothes. He requested to assist me hold my child, while I continued with my washing. I handed the baby to him. He asked me if I had N200, so that he would give my daughter N500. I told him that I didn’t. He then said that he wanted to buy recharge card outside. He left the compound for the next building, where they sell recharge cards. That was how he disappeared with my daughter.”
Emeka took over the narration. He said: “After endless waiting, we went to Oyigbo Police Station to report the case. The police went to his house with a search warrant. They discovered that he had taken some important items out of the house. He left the door net open and locked the main door. He did this, so that people would think he didn’t go far.”
Rejoice said: “When my daughter was found, the DSS called me. I didn’t believe it at first, because I thought I would never see her again. It was already more than four months that she was stolen.”
Two lovers, Ifeoma Ebony, 32, and Emmanuel Onyekwere, 32, have been stealing and selling babies, and nobody knows for how long.
Among those that used to buy from them are Blessing Nwankwo, Chioma Nick and others. The children are sold from N250,000, N300,000 to N450,000.
Onyekwere was so desperate for money that he even stole his two-year-old nephew and sold him. Ebony, a mother of two, has previously spent six months in prison for stealing and selling a baby. After leaving prison, Ebony, rather than turn a new leaf, returned to her vomit.
Onyekwere recounted: “Ifeoma assured me that stealing and selling children would fetch me money to build a house for my mother. It was at that point that I went to my village and stole my sister’s two-year-old son, Victor. Ifeoma and I sold him to an old woman in Enugu State for N250,000.”
*To be continued
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