Grandfather’s insistence on seeing baby scuttled deal
Baby trafficking, Nigeria’s money spinning business
Apart from the insurgent attacks, which have left human population in some parts of the country decimated, one major challenge for the authorities lately is the menace of baby trafficking. Unlike before where teenagers and ‘studs’ were engaged at locations of ‘baby factories,’ orthodox and traditional health practitioners now sell newborn babies at their different centres with impunity. YEMISI OLUSINA lays bare the contending issues in the way nurses sell patients’ babies for a token.
Some days ago, two nurses working at Trinity Clinic, Meiran, Lagos, were arrested by the Police Command in the state for allegedly selling a woman’s baby for the sum of N350, 000.
The nurses, Mrs. Marbel Onochel and Dorcas Omitogun, were said to have sold the baby to one Mrs. Helen Okoh, a resident of Ajah in Lagos.
Because the baby’s mother was a minor, her own mother (now the baby’s grandmother), a source told The Nigerian Xpress, had approached Mrs. Onoche, one of the suspects, to help kill the baby so that the mother could continue living a life of a single lady. “The agreement was to tell anyone, who asked after the child that she had a still birth,” the source said.
Strangely, the nurse had a different plan. She would not kill the child; instead she decided to sell it to a woman in need of a child. Without informing her ‘customer,’ therefore, Onoche, a Delta State indigene, collaborated with her co-nurse, Dorcas Omitoogun, and sold the baby off at the sum of N350, 000. Onoche was alleged to have taken N250.000 while Omitoogun got N100, 000.
The excitement at making the extra cash and the different plans the two had to expend the money was short-lived when they were made to host men from the police force some days after.
Findings by The Nigerian Xpress revealed that trouble started for the duo and others involved when the baby’s paternal
grandfather inquired of his grandchild. A close associate of Mrs. Onoche, who spoke under anonymity said: “The boy who impregnated the girl truly rejected the pregnancy but his father (the baby’s grandfather) insisted on having the baby.”
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Even when he was informed that the baby had died due to an accident that involved his head at birth, the man, according to this neighbour, insisted on seeing the body of the dead child.
“The woman was said to have told them that they had gotten rid of the dead baby to save the family of the trauma attached to such incident but this man would have none of her story. He asked them to go and exhume the placenta of the child and hand it over to him,” related the source.
It was at this point that the matter was reported to the police and the two women were arrested. “I guess the nurses’ explanations were not convincing enough to the man. He got suspicious somehow and decided to involve the police.”
The arrest, unfortunately, did more harm than making more revelations. According to this source, “Mrs. Omitoogun, while confessing, told policemen where the baby’s placenta was buried and asked her husband to help dig it out and bring to the police station. The man, obviously, a sick man, equally shocked, went to where he was directed to and has the placenta dug out. But he did not live to tell the police both what he saw and what he felt as he slumped and died before he could set his eyes again on his beloved wife. He died close to the police station,” narrated the source.
The subsequent days saw the arrests of more people. The woman, Hellen Okoh, who claimed she bought the baby because she could not conceive due to the growth of a fibroid in her womb, was arrested and the grandmother of the baby, who allegedly requested that the baby be killed, is also currently in police net.
Confirming the arrest, Police spokesman in the state, Bala Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said although the baby had been recovered from the buyer, the suspects would all be charged to court.
“We have recovered the baby, arrested the woman, who bought the baby and the two nurses, who conspired and sold the baby. The suspects will be charged to court,” he said.
While the public awaits the stand of the court on the case, it is worth mentioning that this case is just a fresh development on several others before.
In Enugu, sometime ago, 16-year-old Maria was reported to have had her baby taken away by a midwife, who was not even human enough to her at delivery.
“She repeatedly slapped me across the face while I was going through the pain of child labour and after she took my child away and never brought her back. I later learned that my baby had been given to someone to adopt,” she told an investigating team.
Further findings showed that Maria received 20,000 naira, the same price as a 50-kilogramme bag of rice for her pain and services.
In Abuja, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) also once arrested a 38-year-old herbalist, Chigozie Emmanuel, popularly known as Akuchi, for selling newborn babies in the city.
According to NAPTIP, Emmanuel is the owner of Akuchi Herbal Concept located in New Nyanya, Abuja, and was arrested “after weeks of diligent surveillance by officers of the Agency and those of the Department of State services”.
Emmanuel’s formula was different. Unlike what happened in the Onoche’s case, Emmanuel’s client was made to appear pregnant for the period of pregnancy and warned not to go to any hospital for ante-natal care until she was due for delivery. When it was time for her to have the child, she was directed to a particular hospital where she was given a baby of her choice. Emmanuel was paid a sum of six hundred and fifty thousand naira, N650.000 as against the N350.000 that Onoche and her colleague collected.
Meanwhile, the business of baby trafficking does not stop on the desks of midwives, the recipients of the babies and the teenage girls alone, it includes men, who will impregnate the girls.
Although many of these ‘studs’ knew what they were involved in was illegal, they still went ahead to donate their sperm and get the girls pregnant.
“I don’t see it as somebody exploiting me as long as I am paid for my work, but I am often afraid of getting caught by the police because I know it is an illegal act.” said one of them, who withheld his full name.
Although statistics are hard to come by, officials of the NAPTIP say the sale of newborns is widespread and they fear the illegal trade is becoming more prevalent in Nigeria because of the current economic hardship in the country.
While adding that the number of babies fathered by these ‘studs’ are numerous, an official of NAPTIP, who spoke on anonymity said the authorities suspect that babies are not only sold to people in Nigeria but to people from Europe and the United States. According to him, over 1,600 children have been adopted from Nigeria by U.S. citizens since 1999, according to the NAPTIP’s website and about a third of them aged between one and two years old.
A sociologist, Mr. David Babatunde, however, pointed that the societal pressure on women to have children as soon as they are married is another reason that could force any woman to go to that extreme to have a child.
“I do not support the idea of anyone buying babies just because you are unable to have one for yourself but you see the kind of pressure that families put on women, especially in this climate, can make any women to get desperate for one,” he said.
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He nonetheless cautions those, who engage in such act to desist from it as it poses danger in the future for the family.
“If one needs to adopt a child, he or she should go about it the legal way. There is nothing wrong in that but when you try to outsmart people by buying a child, it is wrong. For all you care, you may end up with a child that will kill you at the end of the day if he or she comes up in the future with a criminal trait or a sickness that will not only kill him untimely but even infect the family. So, why the stress?” he queried.
Addressing nurses, who sell babies, Babatunde observed that they might not be doing the buyer any favour, as some of them may be thinking.
“If you think you are saving a woman or a couple from the problem of childless you sure may be wrong because that per son, who came crying that her in-law wanted her out of her home because she could not have a child might be lying. She may want the child for a ritual purpose. If you go ahead to sell the baby, you will be as guilty as she is,” he said.
A medical doctor, Dr. Yemi Adekiitan, warned women from endangering their lives by allowing a herbalist to inject any gas into them in their bid to pretend to be pregnant.
“All those things do not go without an adverse effect. The option of Invirtro-fertility (IVF) is all over the place, so, there is no need going the criminal way. People should desist from fraudulent acts and act civilised. It is because people are patronising these wicked people that is making them to remain in business,” he said.
As the culprits of the stolen baby in Lagos await judgment, Nigerians want the certificate of operation of the clinic where the evil was perpetrated investigated and pray that the case will not be swept under the carpet.
“I wish that Trinity Clinic is shut down because only God knows the number of years they have been doing this evil. I am sure it wouldn’t have been those nurses’ first time otherwise how were they able to get a buyer so fast and why did the grandmother ask for her grandchild to be killed at arrival? Another question is why did the grandfather insist on seeing the dead child? I am sure tongues must have been wagging about happenings in the hospital,” wondered a young man who lives around the place.
