Six young women who were pregnant were saved by the Rivers State Police Command after they discovered a rumored baby factory in Aluu, Ikwerre Local Government Area.
The women that were saved, who range in age from 20 to 23, were camped out with plans to trade their newborns once they had given birth to them.
On May 31, the newly appointed State Commissioner of Police, CP Nwonyi Polycarp Emeka, made the announcement during his first press conference in Port Harcourt. He added that during the raid, police also detained Akudo Azoroh, the owner of the child trafficking center, and her accomplice.
The suspect, who acknowledged conducting the unlawful enterprise, added that she distributes the infants to families without their own children and not to ritualists.
According to Mrs. Azoroh, the women were already expecting when they came to her, and she compensates the women up to N800,000 to N900,00 depending on the women’s pregnancies at the time they came to her and the gender of the kid they gave birth to.
“I have given out six children in the past, I started the business three years ago. I do not have boys who get the girls pregnant, they were already pregnant when they came; they came to me on their own,” she said.
“I give out the babies only to families who do not have children and not to ritualists; I give them out for between N1.4 and N1.5 million, depending on the sex of the baby, while I pay their mothers off depending on the stage of the pregnancy at the time they came.”
Some of the expectant mothers revealed to reporters that they were carrying a child when they entered the workplace and that they meant to give the child away once it was born since they lacked the resources to care for it.
One of them, who was really sorry, said that their mother helped her older sister bring her to the center. She revealed that neither her pregnancy nor the fact that she was living at a home for child traffickers were known to the baby’s father.
The Commissioner claimed that reliable information provided by honorable Nigerians was used to document the success.
“Eagle-eyed operatives of the Rivers State Police Command, in furtherance of an investigation, on May 27, 2023, arrested one Akudio Ozoroh, 39 years, the alleged owner of the child trafficking centre,” he stated.
“Six pregnant girls were rescued. And upon interrogation, Akudo Ozoroh confessed to the crime. The suspect claimed that she had been in the business a long time and had succeeded in selling many children, which she couldn’t give a vivid account of,”
The prime suspect and her accomplice are currently in custody and further investigation is in top gear for the possible arrest of other suspects in connection with the crime.”