Women rescued by Immigration officials from a ‘baby factory’ in Okitipupa, Ondo State ... on Wednesday
| credits: Saharareporters.
| credits: Saharareporters.
The
Ondo State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Services has raided a
house allegedly used as a baby factory in Ilutitun, Okitipupa Local
Government Area, arresting 24 persons.
The suspects included a 66-year-old man,
Mr. Aliu Ojo, who claimed to be a retired Assistant Commissioner of
Police and the alleged leader of the factory, Mrs. Happiness Ogundeji
(aka Mama Pota) aged 45.
They were paraded on Wednesday at the state headquarters of the service.
Five ladies at different stages of
pregnancy and eight men, some claiming to be husbands of the women, were
also brought to the headquarters.
Parading the suspects, the Comptroller
of NIS, Ondo State, Mr.Musa Al-Hassan, said the raid on the house and
the arrest of the suspects were sequel to a tip-off from the Comptroller
General of the NIS, who directed the command to work on a circular that
emanated from Calabar, Cross River State.
Al-Hassan said when he received the
circular, which pointed out that searchlight should be beamed on Imo and
Ondo states in search of perpetrators of human trafficking and baby
factories, he instructed the Head of Anti-Human Trafficking and Child
Labour Section of the command, Mrs. Abiola Obisesan, to swing into
action.
He said the efforts of the command paid
off after several months of surveillance with the discovery of two flats
being used for the illegal operation at Ilutitun.
According to the Comptroller, leader of
the syndicate, who had another branch at Ore, in Odigbo Local
Government, relocated to Ilutitun, Ondo State from Port-Harcourt, where
she had been doing the illegal business.
He stated that the woman had been doing
the business in conjunction with a Cameroonian, adding that the National
Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person had requested that
the arrested people be brought to Lagos.
Al-Hassan attributed the success of the
operation to the collaboration among security agencies in the state,
noting that the operation was carried out by men from the NIS, the
police and the army.
Obisesan, explained that the suspects resisted arrest and insisted that the service must get a warrant of arrest.
She added that the woman wanted to escape through a ladder that was placed on the fence.
She said , “The house was stocked with
foodstuff like tubers of yam, rice, garri while the place was littered
with used baby care products and other instruments allegedly being used
for child delivery.
Ogundeji, however, insisted that the
house was not a baby factory, but a herbal clinic. She admitted that she
was once invited by the police over the arrest of a Cameroonian, who
was accused of stealing a baby, but said the suspect had been released
after she was investigated.
“I don’t know my offence. I am a
business woman. I am operating a natural herbal clinic. I was in my
clinic when the people came to arrest me along with other occupants of
the house. Some of the people that were arrested are my visitors,” she
said.
She added that she had once lived in
Port-Harcourt, but relocated to Ilutitun when her former husband, Okeke,
died and she remarried to Abiodun Ogundeji.
Ojo, on his part, claimed that he had
retired from the Police since 2000 as Assistant Commissioner of Police
after serving in Imo State and was only on a visit to his sister who
heads the place.
Blessing Anike, 21, one of the ladies
paraded by the NIS, was seen holding a two-week old baby. She said she
was brought to the house by her husband, Godswill, who told her that the
woman was a doctor.
The new mother added that she was a hairdressing apprentice before she was impregnated.
Pregnant 20-year-old Chinazo Miracle from Imo State said she was brought to the house for treatment.
It was later learnt that the suspects had been moved to Lagos in line with the request from NAPTIP.
Source PUNCH.
