Retired Nigerian Pastor Accused Of Child Trafficking

A 71 year old retired Nigerian pastor from Umuahia in Abia state was arrested yesterday along with his wife for allegedly stealing an 11-month old baby. The pastor has denied having any knowledge the baby was not legally adopted by his wife, whom the police has accused of purchasing the baby for the equivalent of $2480 from another woman who stole the baby from its mother.

Nigeria is quite notorious for its 'baby factories' - secret abodes usually disguised as maternity homes, orphanages, shelters, and even small churches or prayer houses where young pregnant girls are kept, usually against their will, and forced to give up their babies after delivery. The girls may be paid for this 'service', and a few baby factories have been known to have virile young men who actually impregnate these young girls. The babies are then sold to couples who are in desperate need of children at widely varying prices, with baby boys usually attracting a higher price. A common phenomenon among couples is for the woman to fake a pregnancy and laying low until her 'due date' after which she suddenly appears with a newborn. Some women do this without their husband's knowledge.

The societal pressure on the Nigerian woman to bear children is the reason this abominable trade in babies will continue. I doubt it very much that many of the very successful ones do not have some official backing, either by the police, or politicians. This  well known story is about a woman (another pastor) who claimed to have miraculously delivered seven babies in one year. She was later charged for child trafficking after a DNA test confirmed she was not their mother. 

As long as the Nigerian society continues to place a premium on women to have kids at any and all costs, there will be a market for stolen babies, and children will continue to be illegally adopted. Pastors will also continue to fleece, and prey on gullible, fruit-of-the-womb miracle-seeking women who are desperate to have children in line with the dictates of a society unforgiving in this regard.