Imo baby factory: 17 babies, pregnant teenagers rescued

17 babies and four pregnant teenagers have been rescued from a baby factory by men of the Imo State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil De-fence Corps(NSCDC).

The victims were found in an orphanage home at Orlu in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State which the operators alleg-edly used as a baby factory.

In an interaction with jour-nalists on Friday in Owerri, the state capital, the Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Pedro Idi-ba, hinted that his operatives got information that an orphanage home known as Jehovah Jireh in Orlu was being used as a baby factory.

He said his men stormed the place at about 9 30am and found the victims.Idibia gave the names of the teenage girls as Onyedikachi Obi-alor, Oluchi Uzoma, Hope Nduk-wu and Ogechi Njoku.

The NSCDC boss explained that a two-week-old baby who was given birth to by one Kasar-achi was among the 17 babies res-cued by the team from the pur-ported orphanage home.

He said that after a thorough search of the home, his men found an expired 2007 license of the orphanage home alleged-ly owned by a local government worker in Orlu, known as Cece-lia Egemole.

Idiba said:  “that place was used as an orphanage home in disguise. The license we saw there has since expired since 2007 and has not been renewed. “The place was used as both a maternity and other things as confirmed by the girls we saw there. It was in an unhealthy en-vironment. The girls are teenag-ers, the oldest among them is 19,” Idiba said.He said that the babies had been referred to the state Minis-try of Women Affairs while the pregnant girls had been handed over to the police for further in-vestigation and prosecution.A nanny who is an elder sis-ter to the proprietress, Mrs. Feli-cia Egemole, confessed that some of the girls come to the orphan-age home to put to bed and leave the babies behind.