The proprietress, Mrs Kehinde Blessing Imarhiagbe was paraded last Monday by the police in Benin for complicity in the alleged theft of a four-year-old toddler, Miss Elo Ogidi who was abducted during a church service at Christ Embassy in Oregun and found last Friday at God’s Own Orphanage when policemen raided the facility after a tip-off.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Magdalene Ohenhen who spoke in Benin shortly after ordering the closure noted that management of the centre did not follow due process before admitting the toddler.
During the operation, the commissioner and her team also discovered that the orphanage had three other children who were not documented with the ministry as required by law.
Ohenhen said: “There are rules and regulations guiding the operations of orphanages, but the management of God’s Own Orphanage did not abide by these rules which is why we have shut it.
“The procedure is that before you accept a child into an orphanage in the state, the operator of the home must inform the state government through the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.”
According to Ohenhen, God’s Own Orphanage “has three other children who were admitted into the home without the knowledge of the state government.”
Noting that the owner of God’s Own Orphanage didn’t inform government before admitting Elo, she said, “the home did not inform us about the child who was reported missing in a church in Lagos, before accommodating the child in the home.”
She noted that the children in the orphanage numbering about 15 are being moved to a safer centre, where they will be under the custody of the Edo State Government, pending when investigation on the activities of the home is concluded.
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The Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr Babatunde Kokumo described the activity of the suspect as unwholesome, adding that the stolen girl was “found at the orphanage under questionable circumstances.”
Mrs Imarhiagbe, however, insisted that the baby was brought to her Orphanage home by a man she identified simply as Emeka, who allegedly claimed to be the father of the child, adding that he had lost the mother.
The orphanage proprietress who said since she did not suspect any foul play, did not bother to probe the true identity of the baby, especially when Emeka was visiting her orphanage home every week.
She, however, said she was surprised to receive a phone call while she was attending a church programme in Sapele, Delta State, that the police was looking for her in connection with a child allegedly stolen in Lagos.
She said on arriving Benin, she surrendered herself to the police and that since her arrest all efforts to reach Emeka have not been successful as Emeka has since switched off his phone.
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