In
this piece published by TheNews magazine, it tells to story of James
Ezuma, a medical doctor nabbed by the police in Owerri, Imo State, for
operating baby factories. Its a shocking story and everyone should read
it.
The
glassy signpost with blue, white and black lettering promises would-be
visitors succour. Its delicate frame announces to the public the
presence of a private hospital. Near this board is another with less
aesthetic appeal on a lonely street off Egbu Road, in Owerri metropolis,
which announces to the vulnerable, a place of refuge. The wordings on
this board, strong enough to comfort even the most disheartened, have
been revealed as a decoy to perpetrate evil. The place is “Ezuma Women
and Children Rights Protection Initiative… FG Approved NGO Homeless
Babies Home,” which, until last month, was the epicentre of child
trafficking, with a baby production regime, as if in an industrial
factory, in full swing.
•Ezuma: Serial polygamist with his third wife.
At
the peak of his career, Dr. James Ezuma, who claims to have studied at
the University of Jos, was the poster child of successful medical
practice. His vast empire, including real estate, posh automobiles and
women, advertised him as a man who attained success through dedicated
commitment to his profession. His physical wealth was complemented by a
long list of clientele and friends in political and business circles.
This probably explains why, with impunity, he could operate his
purported hospital and Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, in a building
for which proper building permit was never obtained. Yet, he was there
for many years without the concerned officials raising eyebrows. For the
sheer size of his wealth, the undiscerning public held him in awe. The
church bestowed a knighthood on him for his commitment to charity! This
was before the police flashed their detective klieg lights on his
activities. What they saw however, negates the very essence of the
medical guild.
In
Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State where Ezuma operated
from before he was declared wanted, the 65-year-old drew respect and
fear in nearly equal proportions. His five-storey ‘hospital and charity
home’ on 101 Okigwe Road, Aba, was frequented by high-heeled guests and
‘patients’ who visited mostly at night in sleek automobiles. Their
purpose: to purchase a child. The cost of land in the eternally busy
Okigwe Road is estimated at N10 million per plot. Sources say the
magnificent edifice may have been erected on over five plots of land.
Neighbours and passers-by who dared prey into his activities in this
fortress suffered losses as a result. A former associate of his told
this magazine that any medical practitioner, who challenged his
reptilian practices, suffered either physical harm or had his clinic
shut down. His network of friends, some believed to be in privileged
positions of government, ensured that he never suffered harassments. And
when he did, they made escape routes available to him. Competent
sources in the police force say he had been detained by the police but
on such occasions, he was let off the hook.
•Deception… The signboard contravened what happened in the ‘home’
The
building which has been demolished by the Abia State government
following its owner’s arrest in Owerri, was a den where innocent
children were herded as raw material for his baby production factory.
Here, Ezuma, working in tandem with his network of collaborators,
brought girls, some pregnant, claiming to help provide anti- and
post-natal services to them. Thereafter, the impostor claimed he offered
them humanitarian services such as rehabilitating the teenage girls,
while offering the children out on adoption. The inside of his so-called
hospital before it was pulled down, fared even less than a dispensary.
•The signboard of the ‘hospital’
With
a promise of good life and health care cover for the unborn child, the
girls were coerced to give up their children for pittance, sometimes as
low as N50,000 to N200,000. The methods of harvesting the babies, this
magazine learnt, were debasing of the ethics of gynaecological practice.
Using induced labour and crude delivery methods, Ezuma reportedly
harvested even unripe pregnancies to satisfy his patrons. Although he
made little noise about his sleight-of-the hand child production prowess
in public, Ezuma was the definition of impudence.
Following
several half-spirited battles by the police with him in Abia State,
Ezuma, who hails from Ndiokeke Ndiakunwata, Arondizuogu, Ideato North
LGA, Imo State, fled homewards. Owerri was where he relocated his lair
and operational headquarters. Ezuma’s non-governmental organisation,
sited on a virgin expanse of land was work-in-progress. With a storey
building in advanced stage of completion, the multi-acre plot is
littered with materials procured for building projects. On the left
entrance to the facility is a small wooden house used for a church. The
church previously had a land-related squabble with the doctor. The main
building that housed his family served as the ‘consulting’ as well as
‘delivery’ wards of the hospital. The rest of the vast landmass is used
for the cultivation of cassava, which separates the administrative area
from the girls’ or patients’ ward. The environment where the innocent
girls lived froths with weeds and dirt. The living conditions were as
decrepit as the character of the man who ran the home. Eight girls,
TheNEWS learnt, were confined in each of the two rooms, with neither
ventilation nor permanent windows and doors. Gloom surrounds the
ambience. It was in the quietude that pervades the place that the Ambush
Squad of the Imo State Police Command nabbed him pants down, setting
free 16 innocent girls, many of them at various stages of pregnancy.
•Decrepit environment where the pregnant girls lived
Conservative
estimates indicate that Ezuma’s land in Owerri values at hundreds of
millions of naira. The structures at several stages of completion in the
compound are evaluated at over N20 million. His deep pocket also
reflected in his wealth. And he relished the comfort. Among the vehicles
recovered from him were: a Jaguar, two Chrysler cars, a Lincoln
Navigator, a Honda Jeep, a Nissan Quest, a Pathfinder Sports Utility
Vehicle and three unidentified others. The Imo State Police
Commissioner, Muhammad Musa Katsina, said: “Have you seen Ezuma’s
vehicles? When you see them, you will know the value of these vehicles.
For goodness sake, in a disciplined country like Nigeria, how can
somebody have 10 exotic cars without any single documentation? With
impunity, they were all parked there, without a single documentation.”
Ezuma’s
libertine inclinations are not limited to pecuniary benefits. His
philandering is also legendary. “His marriage to his first wife failed
sometime ago. The woman, a lawyer, left him because of his criminal
tendencies which she condemned. The one he lived with until he was
caught was actually their house-help. And he’s got other concubines,” a
source who knew him closely told TheNEWS. In his world, beautiful women
are complemented by lush automobiles!
•Ezuma’s posh autos… Proceeds from baby trafficking. Photos… Nkrumah Bankong-Obi
Apart
from indulgence in child trafficking, the police allegedly found an
unregistered firearm in his home. This forms a fraction of the 18-count
charges leveled against him in court. This adds up to the fact that his
medical licence was seized by the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, for
improper conduct.
In
the real sense of the word, Ezuma was not operating a hospital. In the
words of Katsina: “You don’t need to be a medical doctor to know what
and what qualities a place should have to be a hospital. Here is a man
who is in his 60s who calls himself a medical doctor and said: Dr. Ezuma
Private Hospital. What is the definition of a hospital? When you go
inside, it was the same doctor that was the chief medical director, he
was the matron, the consultant gynaecologist. His wife who had never
seen the four walls of any health institution is a consultant
gynaecologist. Ezuma trained her in his hospital, trained her in his
university, of which he is the provost of the college of medicine; he is
everything. And yet, after graduating his wife, she came out without a
certificate. Yet she was the one delivering babies. In the same
hospital, ask them, where are the beddings, where is the labour room?
Find out if you can get any injectable material. Even ordinary iodine or
panadol is not there. It was a crude way of delivery.”
Katsina described Ezuma as an animal in human form, too dangerous to mankind.
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