The Police have busted a baby factory at Rukpokwu in Rivers State and arrested over 16 pregnant girls, the cleric who runs the factory, Glory Raphael and three others.
The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Zaki, who paraded 39 suspected criminals on Monday in Port Harcourt, said: Men of the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department, CIID, in a sting operation on Friday raided the premises of one Gloria Raphael, the General Overseer of Mount Sinai Ministry at Rukpokwu, who is into the business of child trafficking and selling and rescued 16 pregnant women one of whom by name Chinyere Nweke entered labour on Saturday and was rushed to the Police Clinic, where she gave birth to a baby girl.
The suspect, Glory Raphael disclosed that “there was a day her sister Esther Josephine called her and told her that she was bringing somebody who was sick for prayers.
According to her, she came with two girls and they were having discharge so she called a midwife to deliver them, adding that some of the girls came for prayers as they have husbands.
One of the pregnant girls rescued, Sandra Solomon disclosed that an agent of the baby factory informed her they sell babies in the church.
She said, she decided to go there because there was no one to help her adding that when she became pregnant and didn’t know what to do, a lady told her that they sell babies in that church and I went there even though she did not tell me how much they sell each baby.
She added that they were sleeping in the church when Police came and rescued them saying she does not want to sell her baby. Another five months pregnant girl, aged 17 years, said the person that got her pregnant brought her to the woman’s house and asked her to stay with her, promising to come back when she puts to bed to pick her.