The Federal Capital Territory Administration has closed down the Priesthood Orphanage located in Karonmajigi following the alleged trafficking of 23 children between the ages of 1-14 from Plateau state.
According to Mandate Secretary of the FCT Women Affairs Secretariat, Mrs Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, the trafficked children were rescued from the uncertified orphanage.
She revealed that the ministry was working closely with the Plateau state Commissioner of Women Affairs to reunite the children with their families, adding that some of them had been abandoned at the orphanage for over 5 years.
“There is no question, yesterday, with immediate effect, that ‘home’ was sealed, shut down. We have the name of the proprietor of the orphanage home, but we are not naming names now for obvious reasons. When the entire material investigation is concluded, there will be an official gazetted presentation of the facts, the findings, and the delivery of this intervention we’ve started here today.
“NAPTIP, as we speak is already on it. Using this as an example, one of the first things I have done is to get approval for the recertification of orphanage homes in Abuja. The minister has approved that there will be a full thorough reprofiling of anything that has to do with orphanage and recertification status of all orphanages in Abuja,” she said.
“We are working with the Plateau state government to reunite the children that I had earlier mentioned by name and by age, with their families in Plateau state. This is a transition arrangement,” she said.
Benjamins-Laniyi also stated that the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike had authorised the Secretariat to “profile and recertify orphanages operating within the nation’s capital.”
Plateau State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Caroline Dafur, expressed dismay at the conditions of the orphanage, highlighting hunger and poor living conditions. The Plateau state government, in collaboration with the FCT Women’s Secretariat, is facilitating the transition of the rescued children to the Karu Children’s Home.
“We came in yesterday and on reaching here, we were told that they went to church. We kept going from one church to another, looking for them until we found them in a Deeper Life Church, where we were able to pick them up, and we went to the home. And we saw the place, it is not supposed to be called a home.
“The place is just so unkempt. I wonder how the children were sleeping in the small room. Nine girls were sleeping in a very small room with just two mattresses. And then for the boys, they were in a small room too, with two mattresses just on the floor. And I mean, it’s so pathetic the way human beings treat human beings in this country,” she said.
