US embassy cable - 05LAGOS1390

UNCLAS LAGOS 001390 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR CA/VO/F/P; STATE FOR CA/OCS/CI; STATE FOR CA/FPP; 
STATE FOR CA/VO/P/I; STATE FOR CA/VO/KCC; STATE FOR 
CA/VO/NVC; INL/G/TIP FOR SALLY NEUMANN; AF/RSA FOR ROBERT 
ZUEHLKE; ACCRA FOR DHS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS, PHUM, PREL, KCRM, KWMN, SMIG, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: SOUTH-EAST STATES TARGET CLINICS INVOLVED 
IN TRAFFICKING 
 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary.  In response to information passed by 
Post's fraud prevention unit (FPU), police authorities in 
four of the five South-East zone states have raided clinics 
involved in trafficking infants.  Clinic staff were paying 
less than 200 dollars to young, indigent pregnant women in 
exchange for their babies.  The clinics would give the babies 
to bogus adoption agencies that would charge adoptive parents 
a hefty fee.  The director of one of the more active 
facilitating agencies in Abia State is under indictment as is 
a state judge.  Abia State is having problems rehabilitating 
the many women and infants found at these clinics.  The 
state's First Lady has taken up the cause and has made 
statements on the issue to local media.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  At an August 25 meeting in Enugu State, Police 
Commissioners from Enugu, Abia, Anambra, and Imo States told 
Post Fraud Prevention Manager (FPM) that, in response to 
information supplied by Post, they had begun cracking down on 
adoption fraud outlets in their jurisdictions.  They all 
claimed to have discovered clinics where pregnant women, 
usually young and poor, were admitted and given a per diem of 
several hundred Naira (equivalent of between $4 and $6) until 
the baby's birth.  Once the babies were born, the clinic 
would give the mothers between N10,000 to N15,000 ($75 to 
$110) for the child.  The babies were then sent to a 
complicit adoption agency that portrayed the infants as 
foundlings to potential adoptive parents.  Fees for the 
adoption of these children ranged from N200,000 to N500,000, 
or between $1,500 and $3,600. Boys fetch higher prices than 
girls. 
 
3.  (SBU)  In Abia State, the situation is particularly 
acute.  An adoption agency there, the Suzzy Foundation, had 
long been under suspicion by Post's immigration visa unit. 
Abia State police raided the agency and arrested its 
director.  Police also confirmed they had arrested a state 
judge and were investigating a social welfare officer and a 
local magistrate.  As a result of the raids in Abia, police 
have taken many pregnant women and newborns into custody, but 
lack the resources to shelter them.  The police have appealed 
to the state's First Lady.  She has addressed the media on 
the issue, and promised to make the apprehension of 
perpetrators and care for victims top priorities.  She is 
pushing for continued investigation of doctors and lawyers 
involved in the adoption business. 
 
4.  (SBU)  The police cited imposter adoptive parents as a 
problem.  By Nigerian law, adoptive parents visit a child and 
take the child into custody personally for an extended, trial 
home stay.  In the case of adoptions by American citizens, 
adoption agencies and state authorities often are not sure 
whether the parents who come to pick up a child are the 
American citizens requesting the adoption.  They have 
recorded many cases where it turns out that friends or 
relatives of the American citizens were actually the ones who 
took the child into custody.  While such imposter schemes may 
simply be designed to save Nigerian American adoptive parents 
plane fare, police see them as exploitable by traffickers as 
well and are therefore interested in stopping them.  Post FPM 
asked that authorities fax any identification supplied by 
potential adoptive parents so that Post could confirm their 
American citizenship and confirm that photographs from our 
passport records match the individuals present. 
 
5.  (SBU)  Comment.  Investigations by local police often 
lead to the discovering of large numbers of trafficking 
victims.  This meeting with police authorities from the 
South-East States was important on two counts.  One, it 
demonstrated the police chiefs were enthused to tackle 
illegal trafficking in their backyards and to make their 
states a less attractive transport depot.  Second, their 
action could spur those nearby states with greater 
trafficking problems to better action.  In June, Cross River 
state police picked up a bus carrying 40 children to Cameroon 
for forced labor.  Press coverage and heightened awareness in 
the South East can therefore help reduce trafficking by 
shutting down a major transit area.  Post FPM and TIP officer 
will travel to the South East for meetings with police 
officials in November to determine ways to help Abia State 
and its First Lady with their outreach campaign and expand it 
to other states.  Police in Abia State, along with a 
journalist from the Nigerian Television Network (NTN), 
compiled a very graphic video that recently aired and may 
turn even more attention to this problem.  End Comment. 
BROWNE