By PHILIP YATAI

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has sealed the Priesthood Orphanage in Karon Majigi Village, Abuja, after 23 children between the ages of one and 14 were rescued from the orphanage.

The children were believed to have been allegedly trafficked from Plateau.

Mrs Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, the Mandate Secretary, Women Affairs Secretariat, FCTA, disclosed this while handing over the children to Plateau Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Caroline Dafur, in Abuja on Monday.

She said that investigation was ongoing to unravel the facts of the allegation.

Benjamins-Laniyi also said that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had authorised the Secretariat to profile and recertify orphanages operating within the nation’s capital.

“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 and recertification of anything that has to do with orphanages in Abuja,” she said.

The mandate secretary said that the Secretariat was already working with Dafur to reunite the children with their families.

She added that some of the children had been in the uncertified orphanage since 2019.

Also speaking, Dafur said that three of the children had escaped due to the poor condition of the orphanage.

She added that the escaped children were discovered by officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who reported the case to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

She said that the FRSC officials further took the children to the Human Rights Radio, Abuja, who then notified the Plateau Government and the FCT Women Affairs Secretariat.

“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.

“From there we went to the orphanage and what we saw in that place, in fact, it is not supposed to be called an orphanage.

“The place is just so unkempt. Nine girls were sleeping in a very small room with just two mattresses.

“For the boys, they were in a small room too, with two mattresses just on the floor. It is so pathetic the way human beings treat their fellow human beings in this country,” she said.

She thanked the mandate secretary for assisting to evacuate the children to the Karu Childrens’ Home. (NAN)

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