Nigerian police have raided a home in the
commercial town of Aba in the eastern Nigerian state of Abia and freed 16
pregnant young women who were allegedly being forced to have babies to be
offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes, police said.
They said they arrested the man suspected
of running the home, adding he was arrested on similar accusations two years
ago but it was unclear what happened to the previous case or why he had been
freed.
“The operation was carried out by the DSS
where 16 expectant mothers, aged between 17 and 37, were found,” Abia state
police spokesman Geofrey Ogbonna told AFP.
The DSS is the Department of State
Services, a domestic intelligence and police force. He said the raid on Cross Foundation in
the southern city of Aba was carried out on Tuesday and the proprietor,
Hyacinth Ndudim Orikara, had been arrested.
“The suspect is a serial human trafficker.
He claims to be a medical doctor. I could recall that the same man was arrested
in May 2011 and 32 teenage girls were rescued from his home,” he said. He said the girls confessed that they had
been offered to sell their babies for between 25,000 and 30,000 naira (around
$200), depending on the sex of the baby.
Human trafficking is widespread in West
Africa, where children are bought from their families to work in plantations,
mines and factories or as domestic help. Others are sold into prostitution, and
less commonly they are tortured or sacrificed in black magic rituals.
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