Nigeria : Police Rescue 19 Pregnant Teens

Security officials in Nigeria say they have rescued 19 pregnant teens, women and four children after a police raid on hide-outs of suspected child trafficking ring planning to sell babies. The victims, ranging from 15 to 28 years, were found on Monday, September 30, 2019 in different locations in the Nigerian biggest city Lagos.

Two women aged 40 and 54 accused of operating homes where the victims were found have been arrested on suspicion of selling babies, and investigators are searching for a prime suspect in the case, Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana told CNN.

Though it is largely reported that most of the girls and women were brought to Lagos from the Southern and Eastern States of Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Abia and Imo, investigators are still pushing on with their search to uncover the rest of their hideouts. While some said their traffickers kidnapped them, others said they were lured to the city by the traffickers who promised them domestic jobs that turned out to be fake when they got to the city, the (traffickers) forced them to stay, Elkana said.

One of the freed women, who did not want to be named, said she had been impregnated by her boyfriend and told by her aunt that there was a job for her in Lagos. She said the woman to whom she was introduced had induced her labour when she was seven months pregnant. “After being in labour for three days, the baby came out weak and finally died,” she ...