House Moves to Criminalise ‘Baby Factories’

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

Worried by the incessant discoveries of baby factories and sale of children, the House of Representatives wednesday passed through second reading an amendment that seeks to criminalise the rising scourge.

The bill sponsored by Hon. Enitan Dolapo Badru is named “bill for an act to amend the trafficking in persons (prohibition) law enforcement and

Badru noted that the baby factory operation is fast growing into organised crime which must be urgently nipped in the bud as it is already becoming an embarrassment to the nation.

“…Embassies would not ask you for result of DNA tests to prove a newborn baby is yours before you can travel with it…we need to impose severe punishment on perpetrators, and operators of unregistered homes and orphanages,” he argued.

Hon. Ayo Omidiran, contributing to the debate, said there was not specific law which outlined concrete punishment for the crime.

Some of the teenagers are raped and impregnated, held hostage until they deliver, and paid a pittance at delivery while the baby is taken away from them, Omidiran said.
“It is despicable, to phantom that a woman would carry a pregnancy for nine months, go through the pain of labour and sell the child for any amount,” she added.