The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), said on Monday in Abuja that it had resolve to shut down alleged child trafficking camps and baby factories, masquerading as orphanages in the territory.
Mr Shaka Sunday, Head of Public Relations, FCT Social Development Secretariat, in a statement said the administration was reacting to a media report which accused it of destroying the social space rather than developing.
Sunday said the secretariat would not and could not in any way be cowed to submission through undignified means while carrying out its statutory mandate and responsibilities to residents of the FCT.
According to him, many of those homes from past experiences were used as transit Homes for child trafficking, baby factories and other heinous crimes against innocent and vulnerable children, cannot be dampened.
“In April 16, 2019, the Secretariat received a call from Alhaji Idris Musa, the traditional ruler of Jiwa, a Community in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the FCT on the existence of an alleged illegal Orphanage in his community and the need for an investigation.
“As a responsible organisation, the then Acting Secretary, Mrs Sefiya Umar in conjunction with the Director of Gender, Amb. Agnes Harts quickly assembled a team comprising of the SDS evacuation Team, the Media to Jiwa community for a fact finding mission to corroborate or otherwise of the information at our disposal.
“Upon arrival at Mount of Mercy Home, we discovered among other infringements the following: That the home is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
” The Home and Orphanage was also neither among the registered ones with the Gender Department of the FCT Social Development Secretariat, the only government Organisation saddled with the responsibility to do so.
“The Home operators couldn’t present any relevant account information or possible source of income with which to run and administer an Orphanage. Mount of Mercy Home lacks decent accommodation, space nor a conducive environment to raise and nurture Children.
“The Proprietress couldn’t provide us with accurate details on how the Children in the Home where sourced as her statements were not coherent.
“No toilet facilities in the shanty building that house the Children as they resort to self-help at any available open defecation space within the community.
“From the foregoing, it became evident that the Home did not meet the prescribed requirements and conditions to operate as an Orphanage.”
Sunday said the secretariat evacuated the weary and unkempt children to one of the FCT Orphanage Homes for proper upkeep, medication and care pending when the proprietress would complete the processes that would confer on her eligibility status to operate as a registered orphanage.
He said the secretariat gave 14 days’ ultimatum to the Owner and Proprietor of Mount of Mercy Home to retract the allegations made against it through the means they used to malign and denigrate it and subsequently tender an unconditional apology.
