Kaduna Govt Temporarily Bans Child Fostering, Adoption

The Kaduna State Government has temporarily banned fostering and adoption of children as a result of abuses by orphanages in the state.

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, who disclosed this on Thursday in Kaduna, said that the government had discovered that some of the orphanage homes were passage for child abuse and trafficking.

She said, “When we came on board, we found out that people just turn their houses into orphanages and get these children, but won’t give them out for fostering or adoption.

“Rather, they use them as a business to get donations and that is what they capitalise on to feed their own children.

“We have also found out that children were being sold, so we felt that this is a very serious issue that needs our intervention. We wrote to the governor seeking approval to stop fostering and adoption because we don’t know where the children are been taken to.

“Some are being sold or trafficked, some are exposed to serious dangers; we even learnt that some of their organs are being sold. So, for now, we have stopped fostering and adoption. We will seek justice for those children and some of those issues are already before the courts.”

Baba added that the ministry was sued by a Ghanaian after collecting three children whom he bought from the orphanage homes.

She said, “There is one Ghanaian man accused of buying three children in Zaria, we have collected these children from him but he took us to court and we are in court now. The man is accused of buying the baby boy for N400, 000 and the baby girls for N350, 000.’’

The commissioner said that the ministry had designed a regulatory framework to guide the conduct of orphanage homes, saying the ban would be lifted once it is approved.