Nigerian police free 19 pregnant women, girls from 'baby factory'

Nigerian police announced Monday they had freed 19 women and girls from captivity.

Police say they suspect most of them were abducted and impregnated by captors who plan on selling their babies.

‘‘We rescued 19 pregnant girls mostly from ages 15. The oldest person there is 28 but majority of them are teenagers who are pregnant and being kept in those locations with the sole aim of them giving birth and those who kept them there are to sell babies and make money out of it. We got two suspects arrested and we are still looking for one’‘, said Lagos state police spokesman, Bala Elkana.

Elkana, said male children were sold by the traffickers for 500,000 naira ($1,630) each, with girls being sold for 300,000 naira ($980).

One of the freed women whose identity was withheld said she had been impregnated by her boyfriend and told by her aunt that there was a job for her in Lagos

‘‘This yellow man told me that if I bore my child that will carry my child and give me money or if I decide to carry my child that all the things that he spent for my health, I will (have to) give her back, so it is because of (my) condition that I have put myself into all this trouble’‘, she said.

The Police said the state criminal investigation department would take over the case.

Spokesman Elkana also said the police was working with state agencies to resettle the women, girls and their babies.

Last week, abut 400 boys and men, some as young as 5 and many in chains and scarred from beatings, were rescued from a building in the northern city of Kaduna that purported to be an Islamic school.

Reuters