Reps raise concern over menace of baby factories

The House of Representatives has resolved to call on the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to work in synergy with other law enforcement agencies in order to forestall the activities of baby factories through effective intelligence gathering and dissemination of information.

The house also urged the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that all maternity homes and orphanages are registered and issued licences to operate within their scope.

The representatives told NAPTIP to closely monitor orphanages and maternity homes to prevent them from being used for nefarious activities.

They further called on state governments to initiate the process of domesticating the Child’s Rights Act to ensure adequate protection of children. The house equally mandated its committees on human rights and healthcare services to ensure implementation.

All the resolutions followed the adoption of a motion on the need to address the menace of baby factories in Nigeria moved by Ossy Prestige, from Abia State.

Prestige noted that in 2006, the United Nations report on Nigeria drew attention to the existence of baby factories in the country and this nefarious practice has continued unabated in different parts of the country, especially in the southern part, with babies being sold as ordinary wares.

He explained that the term “baby factories” also referred to as “baby farms or baby harvesting”, is a new form of human trafficking with the factories located in secret places where young girls and ladies are lured into and encouraged or coerced to get pregnant and deliver babies for sale with or without their consent.

The lawmaker further recalled that the 2011 report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) stated that human trafficking was the third most common heinous crime ravaging Nigeria after financial fraud and drug trafficking and like most other organised crimes, baby factories operate as a powerful cartel involving prominent people backing the nefarious trade.

The house observed that extremely poor and vulnerable teen girls and ladies see such homes as veritable opportunities for redressing their economic misfortunes by selling their babies for peanuts and according to a report by the United Nations, at least ten (10) babies are illegally sold every day in Nigeria, a development that is worrisome and poses a great threat to national security.