Seventeen girls and two babies were rescued during a raid on a “baby-making factory” by troops of the Nigerian Army in Adamawa State.
During the raid on Friday, the operatives arrested seven suspects who run a brothel and engage in human trafficking. The army said the syndicate’s enclave borders Cameroon.
Mohammed Jibrin Gambo, the brigade commander of the 23 Armored Brigade in Yola, paraded the suspects on Saturday.
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He said the brigade’s soldiers, following an intelligence, raided a criminal hideout outside Kasingila village in Maiha LGA.
Gambo added that the suspects were found less than a kilometre from the Belel district, the final hamlet before entering the Republic of Cameroon.
Abubakar Abdullahi, leader of the suspects, said the girls, aged between 19 and 21, were recruited from Adamawa, Gombe and Borno states.
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Abdullahi said they were camped at the location he used as a dance club, brothel and baby factory.
The girls were said to have been in the camp for about three years without the knowledge of their families.
Some of the victims said they were accommodated in a single room and slept on mats. They also claimed that the money realised was held back by their captors so that they cannot escape.
The girls, according to the Army, were also used as entertainment during wedding occasions and naming ceremonies within Nigeria and Cameroon, mostly among criminal gangs operating in the area.
