Police have taken 32 pregnant teenagers from an illegal clinic accused of selling babies in Nigeria's south-east.

The Abia state police chief said police raided the clinic in Aba on Saturday and found the pregnant girls, many of them in poor condition.

Police arrested the facility's director and the girls.

Bala Hassan says police believe the girls went willingly to the facility to give birth to unwanted babies and sell them.

He says one of them told police that babies sell for £1000 to £150.

Traditionally, boys are preferred, as they can inherit land according to the local Igbo culture.

Police accuse the director of reselling the babies at a higher price, but he denies that claim.

He told police he is a doctor and that the babies are placed in orphanages.