Police in Calabar, Cross River State has arrested a man and
his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Godwin Eze, for alleged sale of babies in Calabar. The
couple were apprehended and handed over to the police at the General Hospital
in Calabar by the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong, following
a tip-off.
Asibong said the accused persons had been operating from a
shop within the premises of the hospital along Mary Slessor Avenue since 2011. She
said the shop was secretly used for trafficking activities, adding that the
suspects sold male and female children for N200, 000 and N150,000 respectively.
The commissioner said the hospital management carried out
series of investigations after the tip-off on the matter before apprehending
the couple.
She said, “The suspects have being trafficking in persons
for about five years. The husband had lived in the General Hospital, Calabar,
doing this with his wife. There had been suspicion before now, but nobody was
really sure.
“He has a shop here. Normally, the authorities think they go
home at night, but they do not. What happens is that he deceitfully locks his
door from outside when he is inside and when you see the padlock, you think
there is nobody there.
“He has been having these pregnant girls come around for a
long time and presently he has five of them at the same time. The woman brings
them to the labour ward and when they want to deliver, she claims they are her
husband’s sisters. But at some point when it became obvious she was lying, she
started delivering the girls by herself in an un-conducive environment in the
hospital unknown to anyone.
“The man admitted to the act. We found out that the man has
been doing this for five years now. They sell a male child for N200,000 and the
female for N150,000.”
She said it was the investigation after the tip-off that led
to the arrest of the couple.
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