• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
AFRIPOL

AFRIPOL

en English
ar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)nl Dutchen Englishfr Frenchde Germanit Italianpt Portugueseru Russianes Spanish
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Mission Statement
  • Articles
  • Book Review
  • Archive
  • Contact Us

Nigerian ‘Baby Factories’ Exposed In Child Harvesting Raid

September 9, 2013 by Admin Leave a Comment

Written by AFP

View of Nigeria’s Moonlight Maternity Clinic, that was raided by paramilitary operatives for allegedly engaging in baby trafficking business in the southeastern city of Enugu, on August 5, 2013. Nigerian security forces have recently uncovered a series of so-called baby factories parading as private medical clinics that house pregnant women and offer their children for sale. (AFP/File)

The proprietor of Nigeria’s Moonlight Maternity Clinic was not interested in discussing allegations that he sells newborn babies, with boys fetching higher prices than the girls.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Ben Akpudache, a stout 74-yeard-old, told AFP at the small, dimly lit clinic with concrete floors tucked between commercial shops in the southeastern city of Enugu.

“I can’t just have people coming in and asking questions.”

“Doctor” Akpudache, whose medical credentials are under question, had his clinic raided in July after a three-month sting operation in which the security forces discovered a so-called baby factory.

“We had our people posing as if they wanted to buy a child,” Nigeria’s Civil Defence Corps (NCDC) spokesman Denny Iwuckukwu told AFP.

Police had separately stormed his home in May, where they discovered that babies were also for sale.

But security services say the majority of cases, including that of the Moonlight clinic, have seen unmarried women with unplanned pregnancies arrive voluntarily or through persuasion.

Their newborns are then sold for several thousand dollars, with boys fetching higher prices. The mother receives roughly $200 (150 euros).

Typical was Ebere Onwuchekwa, 29, who became emotional when asked about the sale of her son Prosper.

Speaking at the office of a child rights NGO, she said the father demanded she get an abortion, illegal in Nigeria, and she refused. Her mother ultimately brought in a “midwife”, who delivered the baby then sold him for $1500.

“She took him away… He was a day old,” said Onwuchekwa.

After learning what happened, her uncles tracked Prosper down and got him back. The 18-month-old sat quietly on his mother’s lap as she spoke.

When asked about the woman who sold her son, a resentful Onwuchekwa said “she doesn’t want me to say anything about what happened”.

As for Akpudache, he is out on bail and his facility, which he insisted in a brief, tense encounter was a “registered maternity clinic”, remains opens.

Authorities said it was not been shut down because they were waiting for the courts to take action, though the NCDC spokesman insisted Akpudache would face justice.

“Human beings should not be sold like animals,” said Iwuckukwu.

When police stormed Akpudache’s expansive, three-storey home in Ogui Eke village, roughly an hour outside Enugu, they found six pregnant young women.

In a video provided to AFP by the Enugu police, one of the women said she wanted to continue studying, not struggle as a single mother. Akpudache’s offer to host her through the pregnancy then sell the newborn seemed a solution.

In the same video, Akpudache said he was just trying to “help people in need”.

Despite a 2003 law against human trafficking, including selling children, it is Nigeria’s third most common crime behind fraud and drug trafficking, the United Nations has said. The European Union has cited Nigeria as the African country where the scourge is most common.

The maximum sentence is life in prison but sentencing remains at the judges’ discretion and offenders can get away with just a fine.

Baby trafficking, in particular, has intensified in the southeast, which is populated mainly by the Igbo ethnic group. The NCDC has several ongoing undercover operations targeting suspected baby trafficking rings in Enugu, underscoring the severity of the problem in this region.

The reasons given for why this “baby” market has developed here vary widely.

Some fear newborns are being sold to witchdoctors for rituals in a country where occult practices still occur. Some say fraudsters in the region had simply found another reliable way to earn cash.

But the security forces and activists said the majority of buyers are likely married couples struggling to conceive.

Oby Nwankwo, who spent years as a magistrates court judge in the southeast, said Igbo customs that place huge importance on male children may also play a role.

Widows and daughters have faced massive obstacles when trying to inherit family resources after the death of a patriarch, explained Nwankwo, also a member of a UN committee on discrimination against women (CEDAW).

In some cases, “if a man does not have a child, that’s it. His brother or distant relative will inherit”, said the ex-judge.

Nigerian courts have ruled against Igbo inheritance customs that discriminate against females, but the pressure on a couple to have a male heir remains intense.

Official adoption, managed by state governments in Nigeria, is excessively bureaucratic and involves a public record, a problem in a society where stigmas about adoption persist.

Iruka Nwokedi of the Women in Peace-Building Network in Enugu also blamed the intense pressure placed on having a son in the region.

“Most people want to go through the back door… they look for illegal means,” said Nwokedi.

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Strategic Research & Analysis

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

More to See

Malawi’s President Chakwera calls for debt cancellation, UN reforms with permanent seat for Africa

September 21, 2023 By AFRIPOL

Nigeria’s President Tinubu Addresses United Nations General Debate, 78th Session

September 21, 2023 By AFRIPOL

RSS AllAfrica News: Latest

  • Kenya: Governors Want 'Unfair' Impeachment Law Amended
    [Capital FM] Nairobi -- The Council of Governors (COG) has raised concerns over what it has termed as 'unfair' impeachment laws targeting the heads of devolved units.
  • Africa: Why Islamic States, Other Extremist Groups Are Growing in Africa - U.S. Official
    [Premium Times] Deputy Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Ian J. MacCary, says the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS has "established a focus group to help African states build up their counterterrorism capabilities."
  • Kenya: Govt Halts Non-Essential Foreign Travel for State Officers
    [Capital FM] Nairobi -- The Chief of Staff in the office of the President Felix Koskei has announced the suspension of unnecessary foreign trips by government officers.
  • Nigeria: 23 People Die in Kebbi Boat Mishap
    [Vanguard] At least 23 persons were reportedly killed in a boat mishap which occurred in Yauri river in Kebbi state.
  • Sudan: Army Chief Tours Northern Sudan, Says Paramilitary RSF Was Involved in 2019 Massacre
    [Dabanga] Atbara / Port Sudan -- The head of the Sovereignty Council and commander of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, says that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were involved in the violent dispersal of the large sit-in in front of the army command in central Khartoum on June 3, four […]
  • Sudan: At Least Ten Die in Airstrikes On Residential Areas in Capital
    [Dabanga] Khartoum -- At least ten people were killed in Khartoum state during airstrikes and shelling by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the weekend. In particular Mayo in south Khartoum and El Sawra and Ombadda in Omdurman were hit. A Sudanese Sufi sheikh has called on the Saudi […]

Tags

Achebe Africa Anambra Boko Haram Buhari CBN Corona Virus Egypt Igbo IMF Inflation Jonathan Kenya Nigeria Okonjo Iweala Peter Obi Sanusi Senate Soludo South Africa Soyinka United States
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archives

Footer

Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center, AFRIPOL is foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment, human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa.

Recent

  • Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
  • US Court Orders Chicago University To Release Tinubu’s Academic Records To Atiku
  • Atiku And Tinubu Are Going Down And Dragging The Country With Them – Constance Ikokwu
  • Nigerian President’s CSU Diploma Is A Fake  by J. COYDEN PALMER
  • Listen to what Imo Governor Uzodinma is telling the youths !

Search

Tags

Achebe Africa Anambra Boko Haram Buhari CBN Corona Virus Egypt Igbo IMF Inflation Jonathan Kenya Nigeria Okonjo Iweala Peter Obi Sanusi Senate Soludo South Africa Soyinka United States

Copyright © 2023 · AFRIPOL