Couple selling babies from church baby factory caught.
The River State Police Force have arrested a couple, Chidi and Maureen Martins, for allegedly running a baby factory at a church in the Rumuolumili area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
During the raid, the police found three pregnant teenagers, three newborns and their mothers at the Great Mercy Deliverance Ministry.
The operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team also arrested a couple who came to pick two babies that had already been bought.
Baby factory owners, Chidi and Maureen scouted for teenagers who couldn’t afford to care for their babies in Rivers, Abia, Imo and Akwa Ibom states.
The two worked with a woman simply called IB who is still at large. IB was responsible for finding buyers.
To speed up their deals, the couple induced their victims to birth their babies at eight months so they could sell faster. After birth the victims would be drugged so that they are unaware of their babies’ whereabouts. When they regained consciousness, they would be told that the babies died.
The criminal duo met their waterloo when a relative of one of their victims from Akwa Ibom, Patience, reported her missing to the IRT.
While searching, the police trailed her to the church in Rivers state where they found other victims alongside Patience.
A police source said,
“One of the pregnant teenagers, Lovett, is five months’ pregnant. She is from Ngor-Okpala area of Imo State. We also found one Chisom, from Ohaji Egbema, Imo State. She is 18 years old and seven months’ pregnant. The third pregnant lady is Chioma.
“Patience was found with a day-old baby boy and two other teenagers Favour and Chizaram, were found with a baby girl and a baby boy respectively. In the course of investigations, it was discovered that pregnant teenagers were usually induced into labour in their eighth-month due to demands from people who wanted to buy the babies.
Maureen and her husband , Chidi who were the General Overseer and Associate Pastor of the church respectively lured the pregnant girls with promises of accommodation, feeding and maternity care and would also give them N30, 000 to return to their normal lives.
The babysellers had been operating for 6 years and had customers from all over the country. Boys were sold for N1.5m while girls were sold for N1. 1m
When asked, Maureen said she was only a nurse and helped deliver the babies, IB scouted for the victims and clients. She had lost count of the number of children they had sold.
The police also arrested a couple who intended buying babies that belonged to Patience and another victim, Favour as twins. They had already paid the sum of N3.5m for the children and were just waiting to collect them.
Favour, one of the victims said she ended up in the baby factory because the man who impregnated her did not take care of her. She stated that one Precious, brought her to the baby factory where they stayed for about one month before she gave birth. She said,
Another victim, Lovett said,
“I am from Imo State and when I got pregnant, my mother rejected me. My boyfriend took me to his relatives and they also rejected me. His friend told me that a woman would take care of me at her home and after giving birth, my boyfriend would pay and pick me up. I was taken to the woman but I didn’t suspect her. They locked us inside the house for 10 hours most days.”
