Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Department of State Services (DSS) in a combined operation arrested four persons on allegation of buying and selling babies.
The Director-General NAPTIP, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, at a press briefing, said the suspects -Mrs. Wilson Erurom, a civil servant in Bayelsa; Mr Marksoo Uzer, an employee of First Fertility Hospital, Makurdi Benue State; Albert Motemi and Gabriel Gav were arrested in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
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She said during interrogation, Mrs Erurom said she linked up with the other suspects after listening to an advertorial in one of the broadcast stations in Yenagoa where the man boasted of assisting people to get children either through in-planting, in-vitro fertilization or outright adoption.
She explained that because age was not on her side, she preferred outright adoption of infant and she subsequently paid the sum of N500, 000 for the purpose.
“After the safe delivery of the baby in question, I received a call from the man urging me to come to Makurdi for the baby.
“I arrived and lodged in a hotel and the following day when I saw the man, he told me that the ‘surrogate mother’ suddenly changed her mind. I did not know what happened and as I was trying to find my way back to Bayelsa State the following day, I was arrested by men of the DSS and handed over to NAPTIP,” the suspect was quoted as saying.
The DG said the principal suspect, Mr Uzer, also promised an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) a baby after collecting the sum of N950, 000 but refused to give her the baby.
In his confession, the principal suspect in the case – an employee of one of the popular fertility hospitals in Makurdi, who regretted his action, attributed the development to the financial pressure on him as a result of his wife’s health challenge.
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