The Nigerian Police Force have rescued 10 people after a baby factory was raided in Ogun State.
The rescued people included four children, four pregnant women and two other women a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The operation happened at the so-called “baby factory” in the Mowe area of the southwestern Ogun state on Tuesday.
The rescued women told police the owner hired men to impregnate them and then sell the newborns for profit.
Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi told AFP news agency thus:
“Acting on a tip-off, our men stormed the illegal maternity home and rescued 10 people, including four kids and six women, four of whom are pregnant,”
Abimbola said the women told police that the owner hired men to impregnate them and then sell the newborns for profit.
The “factories” are usually small illegal facilities parading as private medical clinics that house pregnant women and offer their babies for sale.
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However, in many cases, young girls have been held against their will and raped before their babies are sold at the black market.
The police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi told AFP news agency that two suspects, a physically-challenged man and the daughter of the owner of the clinic, were arrested.
“The operator of the centre is on the run but we are intensifying efforts to arrest her and bring her to justice,” he said.
Oyeyemi said the operator had been previously arrested for the same offence.
“She had been standing trial for human trafficking after her arrest early this year but she was on bail when she went back to her usual business.”
Police raids on illegal maternity units are relatively common in Nigeria, especially in the south of Nigeria.
Investigation revealed that at many baby factories in Nigeria, male children are often sold for between 700,000 naira (about $2,000) to million Naira (about $2,700). While female babies are sold for between 500,000 Naira (about $1,350) and 700,000 Naira.
