Indication that the notorious
baby seller in Imo State, Dr. James Ezuma,
has been freed by an Owerri Margistrate Court, has emerged.
Dr. Ezuma, described as a
serial child trafficker by the police, was arrested in December, 2013 for
operating a baby factory with the name, Ezuma Women and Children Rights
Protection Initiative Motherless Babies Home, along Egbu Road, Owerri, while 16 pregnant
girls were rescued from there.
He was also arraigned before
the court by the police on an 18-count charge.
In the suit suit between the Imo State
Commissioner of Police and Ezuma James Ezuma, with the charge No CW/556C/2013,
Ezuma was accused of hiring 16 pregnant teenage girls with the intent that they
would be used for immoral purposes of giving birth to babies which he sells to
prospective buyers, and thereby committing an offence punishable under section
21 of the Trafficking in Persons (prohibition) Law Enforcement and
Administration Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 as applicable in
Imo state.
Other charges included unlawful possession of
prohibited firearms, murder, unlawful possession of vehicles suspected to be
stolen, illegal abduction and Rituals.
But the information making the rounds in Owerri,
the Imo state capital, has it that the presiding Magistrate, Comfort Isiguzo,
had released Dr James Ezuma, a multi-millionaire, just two months after he was
arraigned.
Answering questions from journalists during a
press briefing, the state commissioner of police, Abdulmajid Ali, confirmed the
report, exonerating the police from the matter.
He also disclosed that information reaching
the command showed that most of those charged to court for operating baby
factories had been released, saying the police could do nothing about it.
