Dirty Deal!
Baby rental lands 3 ladies in trouble
• Denied N13, 000 daily proceed
By PETRUS OBI, Enugu
Sunday, July 6, 2008




What would evil minds not do to realize money? For a long time now, four women have been running a syndicate that specializes in renting babies for public display, with whom they solicit alms from the sympathetic public.

But today the game is up for the quartet, as the long arm of the law has finally caught up with them.
They are being detained at the Enugu zonal office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP).

The NAPTIP Zonal head, Ijeoma Okoronkwo told Sunday Sun exclusively that the trio of Blessing Edet, Esther Bassey and Agnes Sam have been in the business and were arrested by the police in Awka, Anambra State along with a 19-year-old single mother, Ngozi Okafor.

The latter gave out her two-month old baby for the business of begging, while expecting her agreed cut from the daily proceeds. Blessing Edet, 45, an indigene of Akwa Ibom State, is the leader of the gang. She was on ‘duty’ when police swooped on her.

As usual, they had ‘rented’ three babies, which they passed off as a set of triplets. Displaying the babies near a popular market, Blessing reportedly posed as their mother. And touched by the apparent plight of the babies, passers-by reportedly gave out alms generously to the ‘mother’, unknown to them that it was a ploy.

But the game was to come to an end when the police in Awka, acting on a tip-off, swooped on the racketeers. Investigation soon revealed that only 19-year-old Ngozi Okafor was breast-feeding. She confessed giving out her baby for the racket.

Mother of one of the babies reportedly left hers with Edet to go on errand only to find them in NAPTIP. She recovered her baby after the syndicate confessed that she wasn’t one of them.
Okoronkwo said that investigations revealed that the business had thrived in and around Onitsha axis by women who mostly come from Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, but hang out around the area.
She described that racket as a new trend of exploiting babies, rent them and use them for begging.
She noted that the women take their turns to parade the babies at different locations in and around Awka and Onitsha; and make between N8, 000 to N13, 000 daily.

In apparent self defence, Blessing Edet denied stealing the children, arguing that “it was with the consent of the mothers that the business was transacted.” Ngozi Okafor, a native of Orumba in Anambara State said she was convinced by Edet to join the business so she could pay the arrears of the hospital bill she incurred during delivery.
The NAPTIP zonal head said they were winding up investigations and would soon arraign the suspects in court.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2008/july/06/national-06-07-2008-001.htm