Baby factory discovered in Anambra

Proprietress of Divine Mercy Motherless Babies Home Obosi , Lady Ifeoma Okolo allegedly escaped arrest yesterday as police raided the home in connection with alleged child trafficking.

Found at the home were 8 babies , and about 20 pregnant young girls .

The Anambra state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development after the raid took charge of three babies. The ministry's Director of Child Development, Mr Emeka Ejide led his team alongside the police for the raid.

The home located at Enic Foam road has a very big warehouse . The building has several rooms . in the decrepit rooms were 20 young pregnant girls waiting to deliver their babies for sale.

Investigation had it that one Miracle -a three year old boy was already sold at N400,000 to a woman who was desperately looking for a baby boy. Ifeoma however defaulted in delivering the boy to her client even after she had paid the amount both parties agreed. That was to mark the genesis of the problem of the home.

When contacted on phone , Lady Ifeoma Okolo said she went to the hospital with the 5 babies (initially at Nkpor but later Onitsha) but did not say anything about the pregnant girls harboured there. His workers had said Awada hospital.

But on investigation, Daily Champion discovered that clothes , make up, and bags of young girls were in the various rooms in the warehouse which had secret key locks and confusing entrance.

A source at the scene confided to Daily Champion that the home takes care of pregnant young girls and about 12 of them were there as at last week she visited and a good number of babies present. She informed claimed that the home specializes in selling babies to baby seekers.

But a Home care in the home, Mrs Elizabeth Okoroji and Cleaner, Mrs Mercy Amadi denied knowledge of such deals of selling babies and keeping pregnant young girls in the home but later claimed they were new and may not give accurate account of happenings at the home.

A woman ( names withheld ) who hails from Enugu state confessed to buying a baby from the home at the cost of over N400, 000 , praying that she be forgiven as she was not the only one that engaged in that even as she blamed her predicament on a protracted quest for a baby boy . She argued that in Igbo land a family without a baby boy was not regarded, explaining that she had given birth to a baby girl. She denied ever thinking of using the child for ritual.

The two tender babies were taken to Tenderlove Motherless babies home Awka while the other one was taken to Model motherless babies home Awka . police said they are on the trail of the home owner.

Speaking to journalists later, Commissioner for women Affairs and Social Development, Dr Mrs Ego Uzoezie reaffirmed the commitment of the ministry to clean up the mess by those running illegal homes in the state.

Daily Champion

Related stories: 32 Teenagers on trial for planning to sell babies

84 year old woman arrested for selling babies

Video - Documentary on human trafficking between Nigeria and Italy

Video - Part 2 of documentary on human trafficking between Nigeria and Italy

Ritualist beheads six year old boy

A six-year-old boy simply identified as Dan-Haru was on Saturday afternoon beheaded by a suspected ritualist in Chanchaga, a suburb of Minna, the Niger capital.

The headless corpse was dumped in a well.

It was gathered that the victim was left at home with his four-year-old brother by their parents who were petty traders at Kasuwa dari, a popular night market.

The younger brother was said to have escaped from the assailant during the attack and reported the incident to their father who was selling kolanuts at the market.

Eyewitnesses, however, said the late response by the father led to the escape of the assailant after killing the victim.

The mother of the deceased discovered his clothes inside the well and raised an alarm which attracted the father and sympathisers.

The Police Public Relation Officer of Niger Command, Mr Richard Oguche, confirmed the incident, pointing out that the Force had commenced investigation into the incident.

He said the assailant might have used a block moulding engine found with blood stain at the house to smash the head of the deceased.

Oguche said the police had not made any arrest in connection with the incident while the corpse had been released for burial.

Vanguard

Related stories: 50 Year Old Man Beheads His Wife

Man beheads judge over court ruling

Drunk police officers kills 3 at funeral

Authorities say four drunk officers with Nigeria's federal police force opened fire on a funeral service they were assigned to guard, killing at least three mourners.

The shooting took place this weekend in the village of Akoko in Nigeria's Delta state. Delta state police spokesman Charles Muka said Monday that the officers opened fire for no reason after drinking heavily.

Muka said the four officers were being held pending the filing of criminal charges over the shooting.

Nigeria's federal police remain incapable of stopping ethnic and religious violence sweeping the oil-rich nation. Critics say its officers instead shake down motorists for bribes and make sham arrests to demand bail money from families. Many officers serve as personal orderlies to the country's elite.

Associated Press

Related stories: Police gun down 70-year old man who refused to pay bribe

Police officer arrested for murders

Video - Dr. Richard Ajayi sets up Nigeria's first IVF clinic

After studying in the UK, Dr. Richard Ajayi returned to Nigeria in 1999 to set up the country's first IVF treatment clinic.

President Goodluck Jonathan orders military to take over Jos security

Following the unending bloodletting in Jos, President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshall Oluseyi Petinrin, to take over full charge of security matters in Plateau State.

With this directive, the military will effectively take control of security in the state, but Presidency sources maintained Monday night that it was not a backdoor declaration of a state of emergency.

Over 100 persons including two families have been killed in the last two weeks following a dispute over the venue of Eid prayers by an Islamic sect after the Ramadan.
Thousands of lives have also been lost in the crises spanning over a decade.

At the last Council of State meeting, the National Security Adviser, General Owoye Andrew Azazi, had said Jonathan directed him to bring up the Jos issue at the next meeting, but apparently because of the spate of killings, the president is acting before then.

A statement from the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the president further directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to bring up all pending reports of recent committees set up by the Federal Government on the issue for immediate review and implementation.

Jonathan, who is billed to meet with Governor Jonah Jang today, further directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to move in immediately to provide succour for internally displaced persons in the troubled state.

In a broadcast Monday to state citizens, Jang said the recent events “have again confirmed that terrorism is here with us and they are expanding their frontiers and posing a greater security challenge. And it must therefore be tackled with all the might at government’s command”.

He said “the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja shows that these terrorists have no regards to not only life, but any course for humanity which the United Nations symbolises,” adding that the terrorism challenge which manifests across the nation “is real and should not be politicised but approached with all sense of decency”.

Meanwhile, speaking on the Presidential Media Chat on national TV and radio Monday night to mark his first 100 days in office, President Jonathan said the Jos crisis is essentially an economic problem but that religion is being used to fan the flames.

He expressed optimism that Nigeria would not disintegrate.

He said the issue of security problem in Jos was more of a problem with the people but pushed by religion and assured Nigerians that the government was on top of the situation and would soon bring the problem under strict control.

He comprehensively responded to American diplomatic cables published by the Wikileaks website and dismissed it as “beer parlour gossip” that is unreliable given the circumstances under which such information was either given or assumed.

Jonathan was particularly miffed that his wife, Dame Patience, was reportedly arrested with $13.5 million, pointing out that his wife never travelled within the period under reference and wondered how such amount would be raised by the wife of a Deputy Governor.

“It is like beer parlour gossip and associated to the former US Ambassador and some of them said that they discussed with people and what they claim was discussed cannot be verified. It is unreliable and unfortunately people tend to believe it.

“The recent one about me and one of my aides who was alleged to have said that I contributed to the poverty of the people and belongs to the old order is bad. I was just 12 months in office when they said the issue in reference or were they referring to when I was Deputy Governor. So how did I bring poverty to the Niger Delta and how was I part of the old order?

“Maybe people have different wikileaks now. How can my wife get $13.5 million? Do people know what $13.5million is? I think that is rubbish. Those gossips that are being published are what I cannot comment, they are gossips. My wife never travelled so where did they catch her? If your name is mentioned in such a thing you cannot keep quiet but you should not castigate someone about it,” he said.

On the single tenure, he said the people should have waited for him to bring out the details of the proposed amendment but wondered how even legal luminaries kept on commenting on what they had not seen and likened such comments to rumour.

He, however, said for a stable economy to be achievable, there has to be stability in the polity, pointing out that Nigeria started out with countries like Singapore which has now progressed beyond Nigeria due to the stability in their polity.

He noted that even in Africa, Nigeria has the shortest political gestation of four years which was too short and costly for the economy. Added to the social and political upheavals that attend such elections, he said, for an investor to have confidence to invest in the economy, he must see consistency in policy that would protect his investments.

He also said that due to the short period, just when people settle down to offices, they start thinking of second term and some even stay less when they win at tribunals a few months to the end of their tenure.

“The cost of conducting elections cannot be good for us every four years. We spent about N130 billion on INEC alone and we are talking about roads, water etc. Nigeria is the only country in Africa with four years. South Africa is five years and Liberia is seven years and both have two terms. In Africa, elections lead too civil strife.

“I have no regrets about proposing a single tenure of say seven years for Governors and president and six years for Assembly members who may want to spend the rest of their lives there because it will stabilise the polity. People are opposing it out of sentiments but one day, Nigerian will decide. Now it is like a rumour,” he said.

This Day

Related stories: Family of 8 butchered in Jos violence

More killed in Jos intercommunal violence