Nigeria
Immigration Services, NIS, Ondo State Command has raided a house allegedly used
as a baby factory in Ilu-tuntun, Okitipupa Local Government Area and arrested
24 persons.
The
suspects included a 66-year-old man, Mr. Aliu Ojo, who claimed to be a retired
Assistant Commissioner of Police as well as the alleged leader of the factory,
Mrs. Happiness Ogundeji, 45, (aka Mama
Pota).
As they
were parading 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 illicit operation at Ilu-tuntun.
According
to the Comptroller, leader of the syndicate, who had another branch at Ore, in
Odigbo Local Government, relocated to Ilu-tuntun, 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 Ilu-tuntun 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.
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