- I’m following divine injunction – Pastor
Lagos State Government has claimed 12 children from the custody of one Pastor Onoyngu Chibuike, Founder of Voice of Salvation Charitable Organisation, who had been operating an illegal orphanage in Ojo area of the state since 2010.
Ministry of Youth and Social Development disclosed on Tuesday through a statement made available to newsmen by its Assist director, Public Affairs Unit, Mrs. F.A Olabisi, saying the hands of the law caught up with Pastor Chibuike last week when one of the children in his care took ill and was taken to hospital for medical attention.
The statement said, “Enquiries from the hospital about the medical history of the indisposed child revealed that Pastor Chibuike who owns the supposed orphanage is not registered under the Lagos State Government as stipulated in the law.”
According to the statement, a raid on the orphanage which took officials of the Lagos State Task Force and officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development some days led to the rescue of these innocent children from the illegal orphanage.
Pastor Chibuike was said to have during a preliminary interrogation by the State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mrs. Uzamat Akinbile Yussuf, claimed that he received a call from God to start the orphanage home over six years ago to rescue helpless children from societal vices and misdemeanour and thus registered the orphanage with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in 2010.
“I am a native of Anambra State. I am called by God to render this service to humanity by helping the less privileged such as widows, motherless children and homeless people. I provide adequate care for these children till their parents can take over their care. For those that were abandoned, I train them even up to university level,” Chibuike said.
According to him, these children were acquired through different means, adding that, “Some of these children here were brought to me by the police, some were brought by their biological mothers who in some instances claimed they had the children out of wedlock and they cannot attend to the needs of the children or shoulder their responsibilities.”
“Based on this, the person will put down his or her name and we will accept the child in order to assist the child. Our affection is on children because we know that if we reject any child, chances are that the children are exposed to the wrong sides of life and might die in the process. Based on this, we will accept the child and take care of the child,” he added further.
The statement went further to say that two of the 15 children were still with the Voice of Salvation Orphanage as at the time of the interrogation, but would also be taken into proper care of the state government while the last one child who was still on the hospital receiving treatment would be monitored by officials of the Ministry of Youth and Social Development as well.
It disclosed that Chibuike, who had emotion written all over him, had since been handed over to the law enforcement agents for further investigation and disciplinary actions and was also ordered to provide the case file documentation on all the children in his orphanage.
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