Octogenarian fake doctor who runs baby factory for 20 years

For over 20 years, he was a major operator in the baby trafficking racket in Delta State. His clinic was a baby factory that served as the nexus between women with unwanted pregnancies and families desperate to adopt a child. For two decades, he operated unrestrained using his registered maternity facility, Ndu Clinic, located at No. 217 Old Lagos-Asaba Road, Delta State.

The boom came to an end when the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu ordered the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) to smoke out the shadowy figure behind the adoption black market in Delta.

After months of intelligence gathering, detectives raided his clinic and the big fish was caught in the net.

Surprise! The man behind the mask was eighty-year-old Samuel Adagbor, a native of Agbor, Delta State, arrested alongside his long-time accomplices: Chinedu Sunday, Friday Eme, Francis Ogene, Joy Monday, Faith Desmond, Vera Emenike and Isioma Okoye.

His arrest opened a floodgate of seamy stories––damning stories straight from the horse’s mouth and from the depositions of his accomplices. The vilest of the crimes perpetrated in his clinic was the practice of ripping fetuses prematurely from the womb at six months by labour induction, only to be nurtured inside an incubator and subsequently sold off.

Adagbor, guilty of operating a secret morgue, is also accused by his disciples of using diabolical powers to manipulate women.

Saturday Sun had a lengthy interview with the old man called Baba by his followers. In the end, Baba pleaded: “I am sorry, please forgive me. Police should please forgive me because I am too old to go to prison.”

Becoming a medical practitioner

To start with, how was he able to operate a clinic without a licensed doctor or nurse?

“I am better than most doctors because I have done this for more than 30 years,” Adagbor responded smartly.

He justified his claim by concisely giving his credentials: “After I graduated from secondary school in 1961, I enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1968 during the civil war. While in active service, I attended the Army Nurse School where I graduated with B1 certificate. I was posted to the Military Hospital where I worked with doctors. We were taught every other thing including how to do surgery. Although I was a nurse, I am much more efficient than some doctors. I was able to deliver so many children without the assistance of a doctor.”

After he quit the Army in 1983, he opened a maternity home and registered it under the Bendel State Ministry of Health in 1984.

“I operated it as a clinic and maternity home and employed doctors and nurses to attend to patients. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was so popular a lot of women preferred to patronize my maternity home.”

The baby business 

“In the years that I operated the clinic, a lot of girls were coming to seek to terminate their pregnancies. Instead of allowing them to do that, I encouraged them to keep the babies and put them up for adoption. As soon as the baby is born, the woman who wants to adopt will out of excitement, give money to the mother of the child and me too as a way of saying thank you.”

Adagbor went further. “I had to force these babies out before nine months because some of these girls did not want their parents or family members to realize that they were pregnant.”

He started this vile practice after experimenting with a young woman called Joy Monday, one of those arrested at the clinic.

“She was brought to my clinic by one Favour,” he recounted. “She was already threatening to kill herself if she couldn’t terminate the pregnancy, which was already six months. I knew that she couldn’t do normal abortion at that stage, so I decided to induce labour. She was given an injection and in less than two hours the baby came out. I gave her N50, 000 and asked her to go home. Unfortunately, days later, the baby died, so I could not give the baby out for adoption. Months later, she came back again but this time around the baby survived and I gave her to one woman who gave me N300, 000.”

Adagbor had no misgivings about his course of action. “If you ask them to go, they will still go to another place and terminate the pregnancy,” he maintained. “All I did was to save these unborn children from being terminated,” he argued. “It was because I was helping them out that I became so popular and several persons started coming to adopt or sell their children.”

Neither did he consider his action motivated by pecuniary motive. “I don’t call it sale because they are given just N50, 000. These persons (women giving up her children) are told that I am doing them a favour by saving them the embarrassment,” he insisted.

Nonetheless, this racket became his mainstay––“I have lost count on the number of children that were adopted in this maternity,” he admitted.

What was worse, he thought the practice is acceptable to many in the society: “Even a politician came here with his girlfriend who was pregnant, we agreed and I bought the baby. I gave them N300, 000.”

Running a morgue

A far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong in him operating a morgue. His argument: “Since naturally, people die in the clinic, I also decided to start operating a morgue. It was meant for the community and a lot of people were bringing their dead to my morgue.”

He, however, pleaded ignorance of breaking any law: “I never knew that it is illegal to own a morgue without proper registration; I assumed that since I have a clinic, it’s okay to have a morgue.”

Of the corpses found in his morgue, the embattled octogenarian claimed the owners brought them to him, saying, “They pay me and I will keep them till they are ready.”

He disputed reports that the corpses were patients who died in his clinic: “It is natural for sick people to die, so anyone that told you that people die here is just lying. I no longer employ licensed doctors and nurses because there is no money to pay them. Most of the case I have, I can manage them with the help of the auxiliary nurses.”

A double-barrel gun was found in his room. “It is my own,” he asserted. “I bought it in Onitsha. I registered it at Delta State Police Command. I still have documents to prove my claim.”

His rationale for owning a gun: “If you are a successful man, it is very important to protect yourself.”

He ended with a plea: “Please have mercy on me and let me go home and age in peace. Police should forgive me because I am too old to go to prison.”

Damning testaments from his crew

The rest of the story came from the other dramatis personae of this ‘absurd drama.’ One of them is Friday Eme, a truck driver based in Delta State, who in the past sold his first child to Pa Samuel Adagbor.

“I met Baba when he just returned from overseas and was looking for someone to drive him around. He used to be very rich when his clinic was one of the best in Agbor,” he stated.

Eme concisely recalled his first dealing with him: “During that time which was more than 18 years ago, my wife was pregnant and things were very hard. He told me that I could sell my child and use the money to start a business. He assured me that since my wife was very young, she would conceive again. As soon as the baby was born, I took her to doctor (Adagbor) and he paid me N30, 000. I went back and told my wife that our baby was dead. I lied that I buried the baby because it’s a taboo for her to see a dead child. She believed me and luckily for us, six months later she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. Our son is 18 years now.”

Eme claimed he used the N30, 000 to rent a truck and open a small business for his wife. He continued: “After some years, I became poor and Baba (Adagbor) employed me to be his driver. I got to know that a lot of women were coming to sell their child that was why I invited Vivian to come and do the same. She wanted to abort the baby and I advised her the best way out. She was five months then and as soon as she became six months, she delivered the baby and was paid. I was only given N50, 000 as my share.”

Another suspect, who identified herself as Joy Monday, claimed she sold two of her babies.

Her story: “I was 16 years when I got pregnant for one of my boyfriends. He refused to accept the pregnancy and gave me money to abort. I was living with my grandmother and she would kill me if she discovered that I was pregnant.

I was still lamenting when a friend known as Favour told me about Baba’s clinic. When we got there, he told me that he couldn’t abort the baby because I was six months. He told me that he could force the baby out and give me small money. I was desperate, so I agreed and they injected me. In less than an hour, I gave birth to a baby girl. They took her away and paid me N50, 000. It was later that Favour saw me and said that Baba is angry because the baby died. I decided on my own to get pregnant since it would be easy to sell when my tummy is not big. I went back to Baba and this time around he waited for one week to be sure that my baby would survive before he paid me N100, 000. Since then any young woman that I saw on the road that looked pregnant, I would approach her and suggest that she should go and see a doctor (Baba) instead of aborting the baby.”

According to her, after the sale of her second baby, she decided to run away from home and go and serve Pa Adagbor. “He is an old man and needs help to run the hospital. He also married a young wife known as Nkiruka who was working there as an auxiliary nurse.”

Joy who blamed her parents for her ill luck in life claimed, “my life was better with Baba” because she had a roof over her head and was also making money by bringing girls to the clinic for abortions. “When they get there, the babies will be born prematurely and they will be paid,” she declared. “So many people were coming there including one pastor who brings his church members for abortion. He sleeps with them and when they are pregnant, he will take them to see the baba. Police should catch him because he has brought not less than six girls here.”

How the atrocities remained secret for such a long time was not difficult to figure in the light of the confessions. “We have heard severally that police arrested people. But Baba, who also owns a shrine, assured us that no one could enter his clinic. He is also fetish; most of his customers normally swear an oath to keep their mouth shut,” Joy alleged.

Asked if the women were sleeping with the old man, she responded ambiguously: “Baba is an old man; he has a wife called Nkiru. But we all fear him, so, even, if he comes to your room and asks you to open your leg, we will obey.”

Yet another sordid chapter of the story came from Faith Desmond, a young woman from Plateau State who was lured to the clinic by Joy Monday when they met in a restaurant.

“I was eating when she came to me and asked if I was married. I said yes. I told her times were hard, that we did not plan for the pregnancy. She told me of one Baba that does a programme for desperate mothers, that he could assist me to deliver the baby and even pay me some money and put the child up for adoption. I agreed and after collecting N250, 000 from them, I told my husband that I had a miscarriage. To convince my husband, Baba, who is a doctor, showed him the dead baby and he believed him.”

She further incriminated the old man with another grave allegation: “Baba made me swear an oath that I will not expose him.”

She added: “He took me to a shrine in his compound. A lot of bad things are happening in that place. Babies are dying because they were born prematurely; girls are also camped there that Baba sleeps with. They get pregnant and the babies are sold by Baba. I am saying these things because I was told that Juju does not work inside the police station.”

Daily Sun