The Proprietor of the The Cross Foundation, Dr Hycinth Orikara who was arrested for allegedly operating a maternity home the police described as illegal “Baby Factory” in Aba , Abia State has been transferred to Enugu.
Transferred alongside Dr Orikara to the South East zonal office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Offences (NAPTIP), Enugu were his victims, the 32 expectant teenage mothers rescued from the “baby factory” by the Abia State police command.

The Abia State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Geoffrey Ogbonna confirmed the transfer to Sunday Trust in a telephone interview.

The zonal Director of NAPTIP, Mrs. Ijeoma Okoronkwo who also spoke with Sunday Trust said that the suspect is now in the custody of anti-human trafficking agency in Enugu, capital of Enugu State.

She could not disclose when the suspects will appear in court but assured that as soon as the agency concluded it’s investigations which must be thoroughly done, they would be charged to court.

There was however nothing to suggest that Number 3, Anyamele Street, Off Number 10 Nicholas Road By Brass Junction, Aba where Dr. Orikara used to practise his trade is a “baby factory” where new babies are reportedly born and sold apparently without due process of adoption. The premises have no sign-post, but it has a high-rise iron, black gate.

When Sunday Trust visited the place to find out from those in the neighbourhood whether anybody had an idea of the illegal baby factory that had possibly existed there since ages, people were unwilling to talk.

Those approached by our correspondent on the issue merely confirmed that for some weeks now, the medical doctor has been having a kind of running battle with the security agencies in Aba.

Although the police at the Central Police Station, Aba told our Reporter that they arrested the “babies manufacturing doctor and his patients” at the above address, the people of the area were indifferent in their reactions to questions.

They revealed that the doctor relocated from the above address to an undisclosed place since last year. “His maternity or what it is called is over there at number 3 Anyamele; that uncompleted storey building,” a female neighbour who runs a hair dressing saloon told our reporter as she pointed towards the building.

Just recently, the Abia State police command raided the baby factory and rescued about 32 teenage expectant mothers from the clinic known as The Cross Foundation, where teenage girls are kept until they are delivered of their babies.

The police said the babies are usually taken away and their mothers discharged after being paid some amounts ranging from N25,000 and N30,000 depending on the sex of the baby.

Parading the proprietor before the press in Abia State, the state police Commissioner, Bala Hassan said such babies who were sold at N30,000 for a male and N25,000 for a female baby, are later sold to the highest bidders.

The commissioner said the syndicate of Dr Orikara provided food and accommodation for the inmates who in turn produce babies for him to sell. He pointed out that it was inhuman for a medical doctor to engage in such acts.

The commissioner revealed that such babies, at times, were sold to ritualists, stressing that the police would not rest until such criminal acts were stamped out of the state.

However, the owner of the “baby factory” told journalists during that he did not operate a “baby factory”, but a foundation for teenagers with unwanted pregnancies, who did not have any one to help them.

He said he has been operating a charity home in consultations with the welfare department of the state government.

According to him, the department has a record of every child adopted, although he denied raking millions of naira from the business.

He explained that the parents of the inmates were aware of their daughter’s whereabouts, noting that the foundation is being sustained by donations from public spirited individuals.

Mrs. Okoronkwo affirmed that they would be very thorough in the investigations and could not say how long they would last. If found guilty as alleged, Dr Orikara may have to try hard to escape long jail sentence.