Director of SSS, Abia State command, Matthew Obodoechi, who briefed
journalists, said that the girls whose ages range between 17 and 37
years were rescued on Monday from a so-called “charity home” named Cross
Foundation International, located along Anyamele Street, Umungasi, Aba.
On seeing journalists inside the room where they were kept at the SSS
state headquarters, Umuahia, many of the pregnant ladies began to weep
profusely.
Obodoechi said that the proprietor of the baby factory, Dr. Hyginus
Ndudim Orikara, was arrested Wednesday morning, vowing that the medical
practitioner, who is in the employment of the Abia State Government,
would be prosecuted.
The SSS chief expressed concern that baby factory phenomenon had become
a new criminal trend in Abia State and other south-east states.
“It is another form of kidnapping where babies are snatched at the
point of birth and sold,” adding, “it is a big shame, a big problem and
it all boils down to the kind of values we have in the society today
where life is not valued,” Obodoechi lamented.
Orikara however denied running a baby factory. He told journalists that
his Cross Foundation was legitimately registered as a charity home,
adding that babies were not sold after delivery but released to the
mother to go home and nurse the baby.
Orikara explained that the presence of the large number of girls at his
foundation was because “we are running operation nurse your own baby”,
whereby girls with unwanted pregnancy are brought to the home for them
to be encouraged and assisted to carry their pregnancies to full term,
deliver and nurse the babies.
But the SSS director said the confessional statement made by the
pregnant ladies revealed that Orikara was indeed operating a baby
factory as the ladies “upon delivery are given a paltry sum of N50,000
and sent away while their babies are sold to people from different parts
of the country.”
He regretted that some persons have chosen to hide under the cover of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) “to perpetrate various forms of
illegal activities, including the illicit baby trade."
“Those hiding under the cover of NGOs to perpetrate modern forms of
slave trade are warned to stop such illegalities as security agencies
will stop at nothing to ensure that they are apprehended and made to
face the law,” the SSS director said.
He also advised members of the public “to desist from encouraging
pregnant ladies to go to baby factories for whatever reason, whether
financial or otherwise."
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