Amid concerns that orphanage operators are getting up to unwholesome practices with their charges, the authorities have removed 19 inmates of a child-care facility in the Federal Capital Territory.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Social Development Secretariat (SDS) has evacuated 19 children from Famouskids Orphanage Home, in Tungan Maje area of Zuba, Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja over alleged negligence and other nefarious acts.
The SDS officials, accompanied by a joint team of security personnel, sealed off the premises of the orphanage, which also runs a school in the area.
Abuja Review reports that the Famouskids Orphanage Home had 25 children as inmates, but only 19 aged 4-17 years were met as at the time of the evaluation exercise.
Speaking with newsmen during the exercise, SDS Acting Secretary, Hajiya Safiya Umar said the action followed a request by the police authorities in the area, asking the Secretariat to evacuate the children from the orphanage.
Hajia Umar added that following information from the police that the owner of the orphanage, Nkechi Udoh had abandoned the home, the SDS was given a directive to pick up the kids and transfer them to a government facility till she returns from wherever she went to.
According to her, a preliminary report revealed that most of the children are brought to Abuja from Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, and were left since February, 2019 in the care of a 23-year-old, who claimed to be an undergraduate of the University of Abuja.
“The police wrote to SDS to come and evacuate the children, meaning there are a lot of things happening in orphanages. From our investigations here, we have come to realise that there are other linkages with some other orphanages in Abuja.
“It appears it is a big business in orphanages, which the government is expected to look into. It is quite unfortunate that people are now using orphanages as their own personal businesses.
“They are using the children as personal business; here, a mother deposited her two children voluntarily and is asking the woman to give her back her children and she has taken to her heels.
“As we are here the police are asking us to resolve the issues, we don’t know which issue, the police here in Tundan Maje, the area command, reached out to us. And a child is missing and one child means a lot to the world.
“Orphanages are not meant to sell children. There is reliable information from the police that the child might have been sold and she is in Lagos, which they are now trying to track,” she explained.
She adds: “With this latest development, where children are being sold, we have started a clampdown on orphanages; we want to know where the children are coming from. It is not in our jurisdiction to collect children from other states, because all the 36 states have social welfare as a department and they have facilities for orphanages.
“It is bothering us that the orphanages in FCT are abusing the law, they are only supposed to keep the children only for three month and then give them out either for adoption or fostering.”
On his part, one Edet Raphael, who claimed to be working with the orphanage as a volunteer, denied knowledge of the missing child from the home.
He said: “I don’t know anything about the missing child; the first time I heard I was arrested and taken to the police station and they questioned me about the child.
“I told them (the police) I don’t know anything about the missing child. I remember the first girl but I have never met the missing girl.”
No comments:
Post a Comment