Bayo Akinloye
Two victims of an Enugu child trafficking ring allegedly involving the state officials and the police, Emmanuella Nwedu and Chijindu Nworie, have refused to accept the babies offered them by the Enugu State Government.
The two young mothers jailed for more than a year in Enugu Prison were accused of child trafficking but SUNDAY PUNCH story published on May 28, 2017 indicated that they were victims and not perpetrators of the crime.
At a ceremony organised recently by the Ministry of Gender Affairs and Social Development, the girls and their families were presented with a baby each but the girls refused to accept the babies, arguing that they were unable to identify them since they were forcibly taken away from them by Enugu State officials immediately after they were delivered of them.
Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH, Nwedu said, “I’m unable to identify my baby. They took the baby away from me after I gave birth.”
“I was only told the baby I was delivered of is a boy. I cannot identify him,” Nworie stated.
The girls’ lawyer and the President of the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network, Olu Omotayo, told SUNDAY PUNCH that he had been directed by the girls to request DNA tests to determine whether the babies given to them were theirs.
“They wanted to hand over the babies but the family will not take the babies until the conduct of DNA tests. The commissioner for information was furious saying that the event was for the collection of babies and not to embarrass the government.”
At the ceremony, the Commissioner for Gender Affairs, Mrs. Peace Ngwu, in her opening remarks, stated how her ministry kept the babies in safe custody.
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the state officials at the ceremony insisted that if the girls refused to collect the babies, they would be the ones to bear the cost of the test.
Omotayo, however, told our correspondent that the ministry should be the one to pay for the test.
“Everybody at the event said the manner in which the Enugu government wanted to hand over the matter wasn’t the proper procedure. It was just an ‘arrangee’ to present the babies and say the government has done well. That was why the commissioner for Gender Affairs was totally confused,” he said.
When SUNDAY PUNCH contacted the commissioner for his reaction on the matter, she said, “I have nothing to say. I can’t talk now. We are in Abuja for a convention. Please, I can’t talk to you now.”
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