The Imo State Commissioner for Information, Mr Theodore Okwu Ejike Ekechi has described the growing baby factory business as a national phenomenon which Imo State is most likely, just a branch of.
On Channels Television’s programme, ‘Sunrise’, Mr Ekechi said that the revelations gotten from the state own personal interrogation and through the Ministry of Women Affairs and the revelations that have come out from the Police’ own interrogations show very clearly that the business was headquartered in states like Ebonyi, Edo Plateau, Lagos, Rivers, Benue and Abia.
He claimed that the commitment of the Imo State Government to fighting crime in the state was the reason behind the crime being uncovered in the state, stressing that there is also need to emulate the efforts of the Imo State Government at the national level.
The State Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Mr Olatoye Durosimi, who was also on the programme, credited the success of the Police in uncovering the crime to the strategic partners who are both government and non-government actors in the state through its intelligence policies, which Ekechi describe as Police-Government Synergy.
Mentioning roles like the hawks that snatch the babies from their mothers; the hawkers, who take the babies from the hawks to sell, he went on to share some of the discoveries of the Police. He described the criminals mode of operation and the structure of their personnel as a cartel.
The commissioner while describing how the government had used community leaders in its strategies reassured the public of the state and the Police commitment to ensuring that the state was ridded of all such places, which he said were still in existence.
Also part of the panel of analysts was a Human Rights Activist, Laila St Matthew Daniel, who explain the motive behind such crimes and blamed the unfortunate development on poverty and the financial disempowerment of Nigerians.
Referring to a certain Dr. James Ezuma, whom she alleged was hiding behind the cover of running an NGO and a clinic to also commit the crime, she stressed the disconnect between stories told by the victims as a proof that parents of the young girls being used to rear the babies knew about the crime being committed against their children.
She also revealed that many of the babies are also being used for different kinds of rituals.
