Orphanage owner held for keeping 74 children
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) yesterday paraded a 45-year-old woman, Pauline Okere, who allegedly turned her orphanage home into a bait for human trafficking.
Okere was arrested for unlawfully keeping 74 children who she collected from their parents at various locations in the Federal Capital Territory.
Speaking at a press conference at the NAPTIP headquarters in Abuja where the woman was paraded yesterday, the Director, Research and Programme Development of the agency, Mr Godwin Morka who represented the Director General, Julie Okah-Donli, said child trafficking had continued to give NAPTIP serious concern, adding that the alleged involvement of some operators of orphanage homes who either abduct children or deceive their parents to give out their children under the guise of fostering was becoming worrisome.
She said this case was referred to the agency by the Department of State Services (DSS) on July 10, 2020 and the woman was handed over to NAPTIP same day.
Pauline, an indigene of Kogi State, was arrested by the DSS following a petition from members of some communities in Kuje Area Council that she took their children from them and they no longer had access to them.
“She was alleged to have taken 74 children while claiming to foster them at her orphanage home known as ‘Divine Hands of Hope’ located at Chukuku, Kuje Area Council of the FCT.”
But investigations by NAPTIP revealed that 25 of the children were kept in Suleja, 24 in FCT, five in Enugu, 10 in Owerri, six in Lagos, two in Kaduna and two are in Anambra State.
Daily Trust Saturday gathered that Pauline who claimed that the children were orphans allegedly offered some for adoption and some as maids in various homes but some of the parents debunked her claim that the children were orphans.
NAPTIP said the woman carried out the activities with the collaboration of some of her workers in the orphanage who are now on the run. The agency said 11 of the 74 children had been rescued during preliminary investigations while efforts were on to get those that had been given out.
Some parents from some communities in the FCT had gone to NAPTIP to check if their children were among the rescued ones.
Speaking on behalf of the parents, Ezra Tuyeko said the woman came to the community to take their children with the claim of training them in schools.