AUTHORITIES in eastern Nigeria have closed down a local government-run orphanage while an investigation is carried out into child trafficking and prostitution charges, an official said on Tuesday. The Umuoji Motherless Babies’ Home is run by officials of the Idemili North local government. Authorities had become suspicious last week and had raided the home and found 28 inhabitants, mostly pregnant teenage girls, along with a number of infants. The authorities suspect that the girls were being used in a prostitution racket and that when they became pregnant the babies were sold off to childless couples, Chukwube said.