Nigerian government and police officials implicated in Lagos orphanage child trafficking

Lagos horror orphanage–Rev Gift John speaks
*Bones found in my home, by proprietress of horror orphanage

Daily Sun
By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2005—Investigations into allegations of criminal activities at an orphanage home in Lagos will move a step further today as detectives handling the case have been told that the Lagos State Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Culture, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele will show up with the bones recovered from the horror home.

But the proprietress of the home, Mrs. Gift John told Daily Sun in a full scale interview that what the commissioner has are bones of cows and goats, unless he goes to a cemetry to dig up human bones.

Mrs John in the interview revealed how she had been having dealings with the officials of the Ministry and how things fell apart between her and the Ministry.

She said that a lawyer who was close to the commissioner had paid and collected a baby at the home. But the lawyer returned the baby half dead and demanded for a replacement with another child, or have a refund of her money.

"I refused to replace the child, and the Commissioner intervened, asking me to replace the child, I still refused. Then the lawyer said that she would deal with me". Mrs. John said.

Meanwhile the police have refuted a report in a National Daily that a Deputy Superintendent of Police was detained over the matter.

According to them, the only officer who visited the State Criminal Investigations Department had come there to give them information which the detectives needed and she left immediately.

The police are in possession of documents signed by officials of the ministry which they said showed that they had been involved in child trafficking.

Below is the text of the interview with Mrs. Gift John:

Genesis of my problem

In June 2003, one Bose Owolabi came to the orphanage with two children as a destitute and she said she wanted help. I discovered she was pregnant and I wanted to send her away. She pleaded with me saying that since the place was an orphanage, I should let her stay. I told her no, that I would only keep her if she brings her mother. If I wanted to do something funny, would I have sent for her mother? The mother came once and never returned. I gave her a rehabilitation form and took her to a juvenile centre at Alakara where she told them that she would like to give the baby to the government.

She gave birth to the baby on November 2, 2003. The baby was adopted on the 10th of November 2003.

Before the baby was adopted, Bose said that I should tell whoever wanted to adopt her baby to help her with some money to do her business, which I did. The adopters gave her N70,000.

Bose started misbehaving in February 2004 and when I confronted her, she ran away and resurfaced on the 12th of January, 2005 to claim her baby. Why did it take her one year to claim her baby?

I learnt that an apostle in her church saw a vision and said what she did was bad. The apostle came to the orphanage on the 12th of January 2005 and detained me for eight days at Ayobo Police Station. The Apostle said he was prepared to die if I don’t produce the child. He further said that he would ensure that my house and orphanage were closed down which had been done.

Is an apostle not supposed to be a peace maker? Nigerians should help me ask him what his interest is? Or is he the owner of the child? The apostle wrote several false petitions to the ministry claiming that I was involved in selling human parts, illegal operation, killing babies etc.

May I use this opportunity to say that I am registered legally, and we dispose babies properly at the Isolo mortuary. I have never sold human parts in my life.

Based on the allegations, the ministry set up a 3-man panel. I took them around the orphanage premises and they never sent for me after that.

Basically, I see this ugly incident as witch-hunting because I had earlier had cause to disagree with the ministry.

A female lawyer once came to adopt a child at the orphanage. But to my surprise, she returned the baby half dead, asking for a replacement or a refund of her money.

I told her that I could not grant her request because the child had been abused. I used the money she paid to rehabilitate the baby. People at the ministry called me to replace the child for her but I refused. Since then, my relationship with the ministry has not been cordial.

When Bose’s issue came up, they saw it as an opportunity to deal with me. As it were now I am ready to give the lawyer her money. The ministry people even asked me to carry the orphanage to my village.

Commissioner’s visit

He came on the 23rd of February. We had closed around 5.30pm and I retired to my home which is the second wing of the duplex. The first wing occupy the orphanage. When the commissioner came, the gateman did not know who he was. He stood outside for minutes. He was annoyed that the gateman kept him waiting so he sent for about 200 OPC men. I didn’t know that it was the commissioner. I thought it was the apostle, so I stayed put in my room.

Disappearing act

(Bursts into laughter) I am a child of God. I learnt that they said OPC asked for me. The blood of Jesus is greater than any OPC charm. For crying out loud, I was in my room, inside my apartment and the OPC members brought down my door.

They also said I was half-dressed. For Christ’s sake, my personal room is my private room! I could as well have been naked. I was half-dressed and was sitting in a pensive mood wondering what was going on. I did not expect them to bring down my door. I was very scared, that was why I didn’t come out.

I had been harassed severally and was sick and tired of it all. My husband came back from work to meet over 200 policemen and 200 OPC men at our gate. He didn’t know what was happening. How did they expect him to enter the house with armed men surrounding it. As he wanted to reverse, they arrested him.

Human bones and dead bodies

I have never burnt any body in my life. Mind you, the refuse dump the commissioner inspected is a public one, where everybody dumps refuse. The bones, he saw were probably cow bones, because two of my daughters got married between November and January. We killed cows and goats.

There is no way I could have burnt babies and OPC would not have arrested me. Mind you, I am not Yoruba, so it was not as if they were covering me up. The street is well guarded by men of the OPC and two OPC members are stationed right in front of my home. So the allegations of burning babies is very malicious and wicked. I only hope that they do not go to pick up bones in the mortuary as evidence. This is all a gang up. Also, how come the commissioner took pictures of my house and orphanage and could not take pictures of the bones he discovered. Or if he took the pictures, why did he not release it to the press. I only saw him pointing to the refuse dump and scattering it with a stick.

Luring of pregnant teenage girls

Look, every orphanage harbours these girls. Do your investigations. They don’t have anywhere else to go. So we take care of them and they give up their kids for adoption. To say that I lure them is very wicked. Their mothers or even boyfriends bring them to us. And we lecture them on laws guiding adoption. I take good care of these girls and register them in the hospital. The two hospitals we use are Samaria and Raphel hospital, both are at Okota. I agree that an orphanage is not supposed to keep pregnant girls, but what do I do, when they come to me. The motto of my orphanage is, "Don’t kill, we care." And we try to live up to that.

Nobody is looking at the fact that we prevent abortion. They are saying that I am involved in human trafficking. Why should I? God has blessed me and given me my own children.

Slaughter slab

What they are referring to as a slaughter slab is a clinical bed in the balcony. I have a qualified nurse that takes care of emergencies. Some of these girls come in at the point of delivery. The mid-wife helps when it is too late for us to take them to the hospital. The last girl that delivered at the orphanage was taken to Samaria hospital. All these girls have files there. We register them for ante natal and give them all the medications necessary. Why would I want to slaughter children? God’s gift to humanity?

Please help me beg the commissioner

Towards the end of the interview, Mrs. John’s eyes became misty. She said: " Please help me get some Yoruba people to beg the Commissioner. I know that they are out to deal with me and would go to any extent. My hands are clean." See my husband and my staff have been here for 10 days."

 

Police, Ministry in showdown over horror orphanage

Daily Sun
By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye

Wednesday, March 9, 2005—The stage was set for a showdown over the Lagos horror orphanage Tuesday, as the State Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Social Development, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele refused to allow officials of his ministry to be quizzed by the police.

Bamidele also failed to keep his promise that he would hand over to the police suspected human bones, which he claimed to have found when he stormed the orphanage with members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).

The police were turned back when they went to the State Government Secretariat, Alausa, asking for a top female official of the ministry who was said to have been dishing out questionable adoption papers.

One of the investigators told Daily Sun: "Our investigations revealed that the orphanage worked hand in hand with the ministry. We discovered that the ministry was sending women, who were looking for children to the orphanage. The women would pretend to be pregnant by packing their stomachs with clothes. Then they would register at a particular hospital with the consent of the ministry and the orphanage.

"Immediately one of the teenage girls give birth, the orphanage would call the woman and she would be admitted in the hospital. A new born baby would be handed over to her.

"Our investigations indicted the female civil servant, who is in charge of signing adoption papers at the ministry. But to our surprise, the commissioner told us that we could not arrest her because all the actions she took were in tandem with the rules and regulations of the ministry."

The source added that the proprietress of the home, Mrs Gift John has been held for about two weeks during which detectives had visited the ministry three times without getting positive response.

The commissioner had promised the police that he would hand over the bones which he claimed to have discovered at the orphanage, but Mrs John had reacted saying the only type of bones that could be found in her yard were those of cows and goats, except officials of the ministry go to a cemetery to look for human bones.

As the case was getting messier, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Israel Ajao, stepped in yesterday when he visited the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti to quiz Mrs John personally.

One of the things that the police said they would like to ask officials of the ministry is how a letter of International Adoption of one Baby Collins was issued to a couple seven months before the said baby was born and picked up from a dustbin.

Letters sent to the orphanage from the ministry contained these contradictions.

Going by the letters exchanged and what all the parties have told the police, a day-old child named "Baby Collins," was abandoned on November 18, 2003. But the ministry had given approval for his adoption on April 14, 2003.

The process of the alleged adoption started on March 28, 2003, when Mrs John received a letter from the Ministry introducing a couple based in Austria, Mr & Mrs Emmanuel Okpara, who wanted a child.

In the letter dated March 28, 2003 and signed by the director, Social Welfare, Mrs. Jaiyesimi on behalf of the permanent secretary, Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development, Mr & Mrs Okpara were introduced to the Home as prospective adopter whose application for adoption had been approved.

So far, investigators believe that three children had been taken under the name of "Baby Collins."

Meanwhile, the doctor whose hospital was being used for the dirty deals is said to have gone into hiding.

 

Horror orphanage: 5 directors quizzed Daily Sun

By Femi Babafemi and Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye

Friday, March 11, 2005—Five directors of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development have been dragged to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) Panti, over allegations of complicity in the illegal sale of babies by controversial orphanage, Good Shepherd Home.

Policemen investigating the directors sprang into action after a Daily Sun expose on questionable activities of some officials of the Ministry, who were believed to have been working hand in hand with the proprietress of the orphanage that was allegedly involved in child trafficking and illegal child procreation.

And, while the directors were being quizzed Wednesday, the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele handed over what he had described as human bones found at the orphanage to the police.

But detectives who checked the bones said they looked like those of badly burnt turkeys. And Daily Sun learnt that the investigators may not accept the exhibit because the commissioner had kept the bones for about two weeks during which he should have handed them over to the police.

Again, the investigators also observed that instead of informing the police and taking them along on the day the orphanage was raided, the commissioner had gone there with members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).

The directors who are being investigated are from the Social Development, Finance and Administration and one other top official who was not named. They were accompanied to the SCID by two lawyers from the State Ministry of Justice.

Bamidele told reporters Wednesday: "I have made a statement to the police myself right from the very first day when this issue started. My officials have been there since morning and I have left my line open since, in case they need any clarification from me."

He confirmed that the police had actually written him to release the affected officials to them with some documents, including things recovered from the orphanage, copies of the state guidelines on child adoption and his initial petition to the police.

The Commissioner said that as much as he wouldn’t like to defend the involvement of officials from his ministry in the orphanage activities based on the documents of transactions in his possession, he couldn’t, however, rule out totally the possibility of complicity if discovered.

He assured that Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has thrown his legal machinery behind the suspects is eager to get the outcome of the investigation, adding that any official that is implicated "will not only be dismissed from service but will be prosecuted."

The Commissioner also disclosed that names of six members of the orphanage Board of Trustees have been obtained while efforts are being made at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Abuja to obtain certified true copies of their forms for arrest and prosecution.

The police have also dispatched a team of detectives to Edo State to trace the root of the pregnant girls found at the orphanage, after discovery that the teenagers were mainly from Edo.

Meanwhile, detectives at Panti have transferred the case of 64 children, who were smuggled into Lagos in a container at the weekend to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, (FCID) Alagbon.

 

 

The Punch
Olalekan Adetayo

 

Friday, March 11 2005—Lawyers to the proprietress of Good Shepherd orphanage, Lagos, Mrs. Gift John, have attributed any perceived irregularities in the operations of the home to negligence by the state government.

 

A statement from Festus Keyamo Chambers on Thursday said having had an audience with the detained proprietress on Tuesday, facts emerged that the government was to be blamed for the sordid state of affairs at the orphanage.

The statement by Declan Kemdirim read, “That if there were irregularities in the adoption procedures and the ministry did not monitor the use of the licence given to her (John) then it is purely the fault and negligence of the ministry.”

The lawyers argued that if the government had had in place a proper welfare programme for abandoned babies and children, motherless babies and children as well as orphans, private initiatives would not be called to question.

Kemdirim, however, described the allegation of burnt babies found in the premises of the home as “wild, unsubstantiated and laughable”; arguing that nothing like that was seen within the premises.

“They stumbled upon a public garbage dump far away from her premises where they saw some things like, perhaps, animal bones, and the people, in the frenzy of the moment concluded that they must be bones of dead babies from her orphanage,” the statement added.

The chambers therefore called on the appropriate authorities to charge the suspect to a court of competent jurisdiction or be released unconditionally.

They also demanded the immediate release of members of her family and staff or charge them to court if investigation found them culpable in any manner.