Illegal child adoption, a heinous crime no one talks about

 Your neighbour or friend that adopted a child may not have followed the legal process. That child could have come through illegal arrangement between the nurses in the hospital, syndicate that specializes in stealing children for ransom and the buyer.

Imagine your wife, sister or a female relation who was delivered of a baby after nine months of painful sweat, either through the normal process or through a caesarean section; one or two months down the line, the baby was stolen by evil and devious individuals for some selfish or devilish reasons. The child is sold to another family in far away town for as cheap as perhaps, N50,000 or some other negotiated amount.

Illegal adoption is big stealing that goes on in nowadays and nobody talks about it. Some people have accepted it as a norm and only a few perhaps, are reporting such incidents to authorities. But whether any investigation or  prosecution is ever carried out is another matter.

Many bonafide mothers are denied of their children through stealing, at times by third parties who resell the ‘product’ to buyers who are desperately in need of children. Cases of such stealing either from churches, mosques, homes or from schools are rampant but only little is heard afterwards as the society seems to have condoned it and cover-up the illegal adopters or buyers.

Incidences of stolen babies abound. Such incidences, sometimes happen in our presence where next-door neighbours adopt children illegally, or put rightly; buy stolen children. People also go congratulate them either as a result of ignorance of the law or as a reflection of a perverse society where people see nothing wrong with sheer wickedness and inhuman treatment of others. People, who share in the joy of those who ‘stole children”, are simply not wearing the shoes of the agonized parents of stolen child who are in anguish over their lost baby.

Some families are today living with claimed children they know are not their biological children; families and friends also know this, but nobody is asking question whether the ‘stolen’/ adopted innocent child followed legal procedure.

Bola Olaosebikan, a medical doctor and former commissioner in Kwara State told BDSUNDAY in Lagos that in the first place there should be no illegal adoption as there are provisions for adoption, legally and officially through the relevant ministries such as ministry of women affairs or justice.

Describing the illegal adoption as criminal, he attributed the rampant act to lack of information on the legal process for adoption. “Stealing of any type is criminal including illegal child adoption. It is stealing and those who perpetrate the act are deviants”, he said.

Assessing the issue, the President of Lagos State Chapter of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, (NIPR), Segun McMedal, who frowned at child stealing, said the process of child adoption in Nigeria is, however, cumbersome.

He believed that it is perhaps the cumbersomeness of the process of official child adoption and ignorance of the policy that the society has come to accept illegal child adoption which has resulted to child stealing.

The stealing of babes with expected core objective largely to resell to desperate buyers has brought anguish and sorrow to many a victim.

Today, it has even become a past time for people to tell others that they have bought a baby and people hear that a family has bought a baby as if it is a societal norm, says another observer.

A report said that “Months after motherless babies home in Aba, Abia State was caught operating a child trafficking outfit, another dimension to the filthy lucre has being introduced in parts of Anambra State, especially Onitsha where no fewer than 12 children were stolen in less than four months. The baby thieves invade cities seeking for innocent little children to grab for sale elsewhere”.

Surprisingly, this scenario is replete in almost every city in Nigeria where children are stolen at random for sale as sources reveal that stealing babies has become a thriving business with varied methods.

One of the strategies employed by the malicious and wicked people who steal for sale is that a woman, regarded as kind and tender would offer to assist a mother of a child in church or at ceremony, usually wedding party. This request is frequently granted as the unsuspecting woman is seen as a devoted member of that church or a relation of the celebrant in the party. But at a slightest chance, she would steal away with the baby.

Recently, the family of Samuel Eleng lost their two-year-old twin daughter at the children’s department of a popular church in Sango-Ota in Ogun State. The family of Innocent Umeh Umegboro in Ogwashi-Uku Delta State as was reported lost their eight month old Destiny to a gang of baby bandits. Fortunately for the parents, the baby was found in Aba, Abia State where he was dumped alive inside a church. Reports say that the child was stolen from the parents’ compound in Ogwashi-Uku Delta State and transferred to buyers in Imo, Abia and Abuja before he was finally dumped alive inside a church in Abia, Abia State, subjecting the parents to days of traumatic experience and agony.

These are just a few of reported cases of stolen children, incidences which happen both in the hospitals, churches and homes with society watching haplessly the commoditisation of guiltless children.  It is said in certain quarters that some of these stolen children are used for absurd and meaningless ritual purposes while some are bought by others who live with us without legal procedure. Whatever reason these children are taken away from their parents is wicked, sinful and a dastard act, says the observer.

The analysts believe that the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) and the police still deserve commendations for any successes recorded in curbing such incidents.

 It was the `miracle baby’ birth in 1994 when a 65-year old woman celebrated her birth as a miracle that happened to her at her old age. NTA Newsline unraveled the mystery behind her birth. The controversy revealed that a nurse was involved in the whole deal of selling the girl. The case went to court for several months and the biological mother Kikelomo Obikoya was identified by the court.

According to a social commentator who craved anonymity, legal child adoption is a traditional belief by the society that the adopter has just accepted to train a child that really does not belong to him/her.

No wonder then, individuals go for outright ‘purchase’ of a child or children without clear or public identifiable sources. This is to claim ownership. When this happens, the society also ascribes ownership to the illegal adopter and accepts the child. But Segun McMedal disagrees to the alleged traditional belief, saying that the society is changing and accepting adopted child as integral part of the family.

Child stealing for various reasons is a global issue. It is also an old act. In other climes, illegal adoption is not taken lightly and when it is reported, authorities will investigate the matter until they unravel it.

In 1997 a young woman in South Africa who desperately wanted a baby had a miscarriage. She never told anyone, not even her husband. Everyone around her continued to believe she was pregnant.

Four months later, that woman went to a local maternity ward and stole a newborn baby sleeping next to her mother and carried the tiny girl from the hospital. For several years this woman in South Africa raised her as her own daughter, never allowing anyone – not even her husband – to know the girl was a famous stolen baby.  According to a report in Mamamia.com, Police continued the investigation and 18 years later, it was discovered that she stole the child. The true biological sister of the stolen girl and the stolen child coincidentally registered in the same school and started relating like sisters. This was the clue that unraveled the case as DNA also assisted. The culprit went to jail even in her old age.

A report lists the process as beginning with “formal application to the relevant authority; for example: The Director, Child Development Department, Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development, Lagos State.

“Secondly, a formal application to the competent court (usually the magistrate court).

Anyone wishing to adopt a child within the ambit of the law must first and foremost lodge an application addressed in the manner described above with relevant authority of the particular state or Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“The applicant fills and submits the copies of birth certificate of the child, medical certificate of fitness of the child and the adopting obtained from a recognised government hospital, a jumbo-size photograph of the child, passport photographs of the adopting parents, employment letter from applicant’s employers, affidavit of record/means deposed to by the applicant (Must disclose other facts relevant to the application), consent letter from the biological parents (where applicable), power of attorney (where adopting parents are represented by a lawyer).

However, at the point of submission of the application, the applicant is required to make statutory payment which varies from state to state. When the application together with the accompanying documents has been properly presented to the satisfaction of the child welfare officer, a formal application is then made to the court.

The hearing of the application may be in open court or in chambers and where the court is satisfied, it makes an award granting custody to the applicant as prayed, otherwise the application would be struck out”.

Ministry of Women Affairs should take the responsibility to educate families and individuals on processes of legal child adoption and perhaps lobby for the simplification of the process. Illegal child adoption is criminal which has given rise to stealing of babies for ransom.