Cumbersome adoption process, ignorance and government's inaction combine to bluster child trafficking in Nigeria, writes JULIANA FRANCIS
The lovers, Ebony and Onyekwere, were arrested by Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari. The police beamed their searchlight on the lovers after they stole two children at Tunga Maji and Gwagwa areas of Abuja. They sold each of the children to Chioma Nick for N300,000.
The panicky father of the baby girl stolen at Gwagwa area of Abuja, who gave his name simply as Olobo, ran from pillar to post, searching for her. He later dashed to the IRT Unit in Abuja to lodge a complaint.
Olobo said: “Ebony and her husband rented an apartment in the compound where I reside with my family. They became close to my wife, who has a one-year-old baby. A week after moving into the compound, Ebony, pretending to be assisting my wife, carried my baby and deceived my wife that she wanted to go and plait her hair. Before we knew what was happening, Ebony and her husband had disappeared with our daughter.”
The lovers were tracked to Asaba in Delta State. It was through the lovers that the IRT operatives arrested other buyers.
Ebony said that she was first a prostitute before discovering the world of baby trafficking. She had once been arrested and imprisoned for stealing and selling a baby.
She said that after leaving prison, she went into the crime, teaming up with one Onwa and Chibuzor. Onwa asked her to get a child between ages one and two, that he would pay half a million naira.
She said: “My boyfriend, Onyewkere, then went to his village and stole his sister’s two-year-old son. We contacted Onwa and followed him to Enugu State where the child was sold to an old woman driving a Toyota Camry car. She paid us N250,000. Onwa advised us not to steal children sighted along the road. He said that we should rent an apartment in a community and when we see a child, we should steal him or her, then abandon the apartment and community.”
Ebony said that it was based on Onwa’s advice that she and Onyekwere went to Akuke area of Enugu State to rent an apartment.
“We succeeded in stealing two children, between ages two and four. We stole them from a guy called Onyeka. I knew him when I was at Abuja. I ran into him in Enugu State and he seemed very happy to see me. He introduced me to his wife and we became friends. I visited them regularly in their house until I became familiar with their children; Ada and Chinonso. I studied their terrain for three months until the coast was clear. I stole and sold the children to Onwa for N450,000 each. Emmanuel and I relocated to Abuja, where we rented an apartment at the Tungamaji area of Abuja. We stole a woman’s child who is our neighbour. The woman left her child in my care while she went to the market. Emmanuel and I quickly parked our things and fled with the child. We sold the child to Chioma Nick for N300,000. We met Chioma through Onwa.
"We then rented another apartment at the Gwagwa area of Abuja. We stayed there for two weeks and then I stole a baby and sold her to Chioma for N300,000. We then left Abuja and ran to Ipoba Hill area of Edo State, where we rented an apartment. There we stole a child belonging to a woman, who was sick. She couldn’t pay proper attention to the child. The child used to come to our own compound to play. I stole the child, took her to Chioma, who paid us N300,000,” Ebony explained.
Investigation has shown that one of the major causes of baby trafficking boom was the cumbersome process involved in legal adoption in ministries of women affairs in different states.
In the first week of February 2020, Miss Anurika Francis paid a visit to the Lagos State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development, to find out the adoption process for her friend, who is based in the United States. She returned from the visit to describe the process as, “frustrating and reason people who want babies will continue to patronise black market".
Francis’s friend, Kemi, is knocking on the door of 50. She has been married for over 10 years and the union is yet to be blessed with a baby. She has visited a series of hospitals overseas and done a series of medical tests all to no avail. In these hospitals, she was told that she was medically all right. She has also attempted different kinds of trado-medicine, but again, those were failures. She subjected herself to IVF in Nigeria, which gulped N2 million, but that also failed.
Feeling pressured as her biological clock continues to tick, Kemi brainstormed with her husband and they both decided to opt for adoption in Nigeria. She contacted Francis to make findings on how to go about adoption in Nigeria. Thus Francis went to the Lagos State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development and returned fuming.
She explained: “I went to the adoption office, where I met a lady at the general office. She explained to me that prospective couples will have to write an application letter, which would be signed by husband and wife, stating reason they want to adopt a baby. They have to scan the letter, give me and then I have to assist them to submit it at the centre. Before submitting, I have to make two photocopies. The lady told me that it takes between a year and two to finalise adoption process. I told her that the duration was too long.
"I told her that such a long duration would make people to go and buy babies at the black market, which they get within days. She told me that the long duration was because of the required documents and investigations. She said that they didn’t want the children to be adopted and then maltreated. Aside from that, we heard that applicants living abroad will have to frequent Nigeria, maybe twice or thrice because of the documentations.”
When Francis called and explained the process to Kemi, the latter said the process was too cumbersome. She mentioned going to buy a baby.
Francis said: “One of Kemi’s friends told her that her mom used to get babies for people. The woman once got three babies for some childless couples. The person selling the babies is a midwife. She told Kemi that a month-old baby was available. Kemi asked her how she would go about documentation for the baby to enable travelling out of the country. The woman assured her that everything would be done.
"Kemi was already putting her plans into motion, when another friend discouraged her. The whole legal process of adoption is frustrating. This is why people continue to go through the backdoor. Government should look into making legal adoption less stressful.”
Officials in ministries saddled with adoption in Anambra and Lagos states, while speaking on the processes, insisted that they didn’t want their names mentioned. Thus our reporter declined to use their version.
But the ministry in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was not so reticent.
According to the Head and Public Relations Officer of the FCT Social Welfare Secretariat, Mr. Sunday Shaka, adoption in the Territory involves a series of processes which start from obtaining a slip from the Family Court residing in the Magistrates' Court Zone 2.
He said that the obtained slip is filled out and taken to the Child Division of Gender in Area 3 for an adoption form. Thereafter, the adoption form is returned with the following documents - hand-written application for adoption/fostering, two recent passport size photographs of either both adoptees if it’s a married couple, or the single, marriage certificate for married parents, original copy of medical certificate of fitness from a government-owned hospital, letter of consent, evidence of indigeneship from either state or local government liaison office, statement of account, any other evidence of income, three referees and court affidavit.
Shaka, who said that there was no fee attached to the processes of adopting a child, noted that once the above processes were followed and all documents verified as valid, a series of visitations would be carried out by staff of the Social Welfare Secretariat for as many times as it deemed fitting, to verify and appraise if the environment was conducive for the child to be adopted.
He added: “The beginning and processes it takes cannot be expressly determined because there are lots of stages involved. Again, an adoption process is subject to availability of children. The request for adoption in the FCT outnumbers available children eligible to be adopted.”
Investigation carried out by our reporter revealed that adoption of a child in Anambra State sometimes lasts for between two and three years. According to some people, it depends on some variable requirements such as the availability of the choice child, parents’ approval and financial capability of the adopters.
The Officer in Charge of the IRT Unit, DCP Kyari, who has led policemen in the bursting of many baby-trafficking rings and the rescuing of several babies, disclosed that years of investigations and profiling have revealed why the crime continues to thrive.
He said: “It is because there is always availability of buyers. Many women have now opened motherless babies’ homes everywhere. What most of them are doing is not for charity, but to make profit. People see them as humanitarian workers, sacrificing for the society, but the truth is that underground, they’re stealing people’s children all over the country. They buy for N300,000 or N350,000 from those that stole the babies and sell for those seeking babies for N750,000.
"Sometimes, some buyers fall into wrong hands. These buyers innocently go to those orphanages, thinking the children there are motherless ones. They don’t know the babies are stolen. Many of the buyers are actually innocent. The real deal is between those that steal the children and sell to the so-called orphanages.
"They are the real criminals. Government should investigate anybody that wants to operate an orphanage; the person should have integrity and government should ensure that they are monitored. Detectives should be encouraged to start posing as buyers to know the criminals among these orphanages. There should be regulations; the background of prospective orphanage operators should be checked. Those stealing children are heartless! They have their own children, but they’ll go out to steal other people’s children and sell.”
According to Kyari, investigations have shown that most of those that steal children, rent houses within communities and then begin to monitor a prospective child they want to steal, after which they strike and then disappear with the child.
The crimebuster explained that for years, children used to go missing and people used to think they had just gone missing, but now, it has become clear those missing children were actually stolen.
He added: “Nobody knew for long that the stealing of children has become a booming business until we unravelled this booming business. People need to be sensitised. If we allow this crime to continue without taking decisive steps towards curbing it, it will go out of control. This is one of the most heartless of all crimes; to steal someone’s child to sell. These criminals have no conscience. They sell for N300,000, but how long will N300,000 lasts?”
According to experts, a solution to an infertile marriage, which is a major factor behind baby trafficking, is In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). But many Nigerians, because of cultural patterns and how expensive it is, refuse to go for it. Investigations have shown that many Nigerians cannot avoid IVF. Even those who can afford it, after subjecting themselves to it, are often disappointed.
An IVF expert, Dr. Adebisi Oyero, explained that every patient is deemed to have 100 per cent success rate until otherwise stated. According to her, on the average, IVF success is between 45 per cent and 60 per cent.
She said: “Nowadays, with improved awareness and educational levels in Nigeria, IVF is becoming socially accepted and sought after as a treatment option for infertility. Services such as third party reproduction, gamete donation and surrogacy, are also available for couples that may need it. There is a surge in clinics offering fertility treatment these days, some of which have less than a standard IVF laboratory and are mostly in it for the money.”
Oyero added that due to culture and ignorance, some Nigerians have refused to accept IVF.
She argued that IVF-conceived babies, “are normal; they live a healthy and normal life. There is no need to stigmatise the method of conception. More couples should seek it as an alternative way of getting pregnant and raising their desired family.”
The Lagos State Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Mr. Daniel Atokolo, disclosed that most women who sell their babies are, “reluctant mothers.”
He said: “They are mothers who don’t and didn’t want their children. Most of them are involved in sales of their babies. It is because they didn’t want those children that they end up selling them.”
According to him, the evil act thrives because of the availability of buyers and sellers.
He said: “If you don’t want your baby and you sell it, it becomes an offence. Human beings cannot be bought and sold. The baby-trafficking syndicate is all about taking advantage of the vulnerable and those who don’t know what they are doing. How can you sell a human being?
"NAPTIP works with ministries of women affairs in Nigeria; there are departments in those ministries that are in charge of adoption processes. These are the legal and genuine institutions to deal with. If you want to adopt a child, you go to the institutions and apply. It’s a specialist field. When you get there, they’ll profile you. It is because of the cumbersome nature of adoption, that some people are beginning to exploit the gap.”
Atokolo maintained that for baby trafficking to be curtailed, government at all levels should join hands to check human trafficking and adoption process.
He added: “What are the root causes of baby sales? I’m not a specialist in child adoption, but I hope the ministries will look at making it less cumbersome."
According to him, some people continue to patronise traffickers, rather than embracing the legal process because of stigma.
"They don’t want people to know that their baby was adopted," he added.
...To be continued
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