Niger parliament head to be quizzed for trafficking of babies born in Nigeria

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NIAMEY (AFP) – The head of parliament in Niger will be interrogated as part of a probe into international baby-trafficking, sources said on Wednesday.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hama Amadou is suspected of “complicity” in the trafficking of babies born in Nigeria and trafficked into Niger via Benin.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But Amadou, who is considered the leading challenger to President Mahamadou Issoufou ahead of elections in 2016, has denounced the charges as politically motivated and said it would involve a breach of his parliamentary immunity.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One of Amadou’s wives is among the 17 people, including 12 women, already arrested in the case since June.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We think that for the honour and respectability of our institution, he must make himself available to the judicial authorities,” said Mohamed Ben Omar, a member of parliament’s political bureau, which authorised the investigation into Amadou.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We must not risk breaking the equality of citizens before the law. In the same case, Nigerians are languishing in prison for months,” he said.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It is with a heavy heart that we have taken this difficult decision, but we consider that it’s our duty,” added Daouda Mallam Marthe, a vice-president of the National Assembly with the ruling Niger Party for Democracy and Progress (PNDS).</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- ‘Baby factories’ -</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The opposition has denounced the investigation as a breach of parliamentary rules, which do not allow “an office of the National Assembly to deliver a deputy to justice or to have him arrested,” said Tidjani Abdoulkadri, of the Democratic and Social Convention party.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hama Amadou is reportedly planning to appeal to the Constitutional Court to look into the legality of the order.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The alleged crime involves forging and altering birth certificates to switch the names of mothers.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Agriculture Minister Abdou Labo, a wife of Amadou, was arrested on Saturday.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The trafficking network is used primarily by couples who are unable to have children,” a source close to the case told AFP earlier this year.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Baby factories” — private clinics where young girls sell their newborns to couples who are unable to conceive — are regularly uncovered in Nigeria.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cases in which mothers give up babies born from rape have been reported at such clinics, but young women facing unwanted pregnancies are more common, according to the Nigerian authorities.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The newborns are sold for several thousand euros — with boys fetching more than girls. The mothers receive around 150 euros ($200).</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The impoverished country of Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, an average of 7.6 children per woman.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2012, Niger police uncovered a fake orphanage where babies were sold on, some for use in black magic rituals.</span></div> <div class="OUTBRAIN" data-browser="safari" data-dynload="" data-ob-mark="true" data-os="ipad" data-src="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/niger-parliament-head-quizzed-trafficking-babies-born-nigeria/" id="outbrain_widget_0" obdone="true" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="ob_strip_container NA" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"> <span class="ob_empty" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><wbr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></wbr></span><span class="ob_org_header" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div> </div> <br /></div>

Niger parliament head to be quizzed for trafficking of babies born in Nigeria

NIAMEY (AFP) – The head of parliament in Niger will be interrogated as part of a probe into international baby-trafficking, sources said o...

Read more »