Seventeen pregnant teenagers who were in the process of producing children for sale have been liberated by a detachment of soldiers from the 14th Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Ohafia, Abia State.

Reports said the pregnant girls, most of whom are from neighbouring states, came to access the services of the home but became confined and were not allowed go out until they were delivered of their babies.

Transport & Business Express reports that the home, Nma Maternity and Charity Rehabilitation Home, located at Umunkpeyi, Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area, was also raided by security agents about two years ago and some pregnant teenagers were rescued from the home.

Abia State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Ugoeze Joy Alozie, told news men in Umuahia that 15 pregnant, two none-pregnant and three children were brought to her ministry at 1pm on yesterday by an army major who led the team that libereted them last Friday.

Mrs. Alozie quoted the unnamed major as saying that the army raided the maternity home following a tip-off by some concerned residents.

Those arrested in the home were mostly pregnant teenagers who have been held in the home for periods ranging from one week to four months. The Matron was said to have escaped when she got wind of the presence of the military.

The commissioner expressed surprise that the home which had in the past been implicated in questionable practices should be allowed to function, adding that despite campaigns by the state government to stop child trafficking, some people were still involved in the nefarious trade.

“When the major brought them here in a lorry load, most of them looked anaemic, tattered and unkempt. When these mothers give birth, their children are sold and they are told they had died,” she said.

The commissioner advised parents not to reject their pregnant daughters to reduce the incident of girls running away from homes to unknown places.

One of the pregnant girls who gave her name as Uche Agwu from Ameke in Abiriba, said she was introduced to the home by a woman from the same community (Abiriba). “It was a help she offered to me because I have no body to assist me through my pregnancy,” she said.

According to her, the boy responsible for the pregnancy is an undergraduate of a university in Enugu who however could not help or marry her as he is still in school.

Uche, who is six months pregnant and had been in the home for three weeks, revealed that part of the arrangement with the matron of the home was that she will be paid off once she was delivered of her baby, which she claimed she reluctantly accepted as she has nobody to her take care of the unborn baby if she kept it.

Asked to confirm if they confined incommunicado, she said that they were locked inside the premises and were not allowed to receive any visitors with the possible exception of the person who brought them.

Miss Pleasure, who claimed to have come from the neighbouring village of Umuejia, said she was forcefully bundled into the home by her brothers. She said a man from the same village with her was responsible for her six months pregnancy. Pleasure, who looked mentally deranged, claimed that she was working for the owner of the Home on the grounds that wages would be used to upset her maternity bills as well as her up keep.

Ifeoma Nwachukwu who came in that same Friday from Umunumo Mbano in Imo State,  said she was introduced to the Home by one Uloaku from her area same day the place was raided.

*Photo: Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Onyeabor Ihejirika