The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has disclosed that the Administration will soon carry out an audit of all orphanage homes operating in the territory to ascertain the level of compliance in accordance with the Child Rights Act.
Coordinator of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, Tpl. Umar Shuaibu Yesterday, stated this while reacting to insinuations in some quarters suggesting that the authorities of the FCT Administration are out to forcefully outlaw the operation of orphanage homes in the nation’s capital.
He maintained that the establishment of orphanage homes in a modern city like Abuja must follow the Master Plan, stressing that FCT as a role model of the 36 states of the Federation, the implementation of the Child Rights Act in FCT is very paramount, critical and must be strictly adhered to.
His said:
” We are going to make sure that henceforth all orphanages in Abuja be audited to ensure that everyone conforms to the rules and regulations governing the practice of this activity, in order to forestall problems like this one (Kubwa orphanage saga) in the future.”
While reacting to media reports alleging that the FCT Administration has failed to provide succour to orphans of the recently demolished Divine Wound Jesus Christ Orphanage in Kubwa, the Acting Secretary of FCT Social Development Secretariat, Hajia Safiya Umar said the orphanage has contravened all rules and regulations setting up an orphanage in a designated area.
Umar, who acknowledged some administrative lapses in monitoring the activities of private orphanage in Abuja, also assured residents of the preparedness of the relevant agencies to block all loopholes in the operation of orphanage.
According to her, “The issue of Divine Wound Jesus Christ Orphanage came to us four days after the demolition. Before then, we have a running battle with the owner of the orphanage. Setting up an orphanage has some rules and regulations that is not only propounded by the FCT but by the Child Right’s Act.
“And in FCT, we have a Child Rights Act committee that works with Social Development Secretariat that regulates issues of the setting up of orphanages in the FCT.
“The rules and regulations of establishing orphanages are clear. First, according to the Child Rights Act, there must be a solid ventilated building; the owner of the orphanage must be financially balanced because the Act states that in esterblising such an orphanage you must have a mordern building with financial suport and a bank statement to cover up as a security.
“The Divine home came to us about six years ago that she want to establish an orphanage. We carried out the due diligence and observed that orphanage cannot be runned in a temporary structure but the process continue up to 2015 where she insisted.
“Give and take there was lapses on the part of regulators and a letter of provisional operation was issued to her pending when she will meet up with the standard. But then, she has couple of children in her hands and we felt, since she is spirited with the orphanage and she present a bank statement of about 200,000 which was required by the Child Rights Act we gave her a provisional offer acceptance, but in one year we will come back to inspect so that she will not be discouraged because government cannot do it all alone.
“We signed an MoU with her that she will beef up the place within one year which she never did.
Last year, we visited her and observed that she has 200 children. The Child Rights Act says you cannot keep up to 200 children in an orphanage.
“An orphanage is a temporary habitation for children. The Act says that you must disperse these children within three months of the deposition of these children through adoption or fostering.
“This is because the child is a member of the society with time and he should acquaint himself with the society, so that he can come out as one of the responsible citizens . This is why the Child Rights Act designated that orphanages should keep children for just a period of months and dispatch them unless there is a specIal case.
“Even in specIal cases, the Act did not allow orphanage to keep children up to 200 children. In worst case scenario it should be 20 to 30 in a private orphanage. The government can keep orphans of 50, 60, 70 children but up to 100 is not acceptable by the Child Rights Act . “Because we have a Child Rights Act Committee instituted here in Abuja that takes care of that. You cannot establish an orphanage and get deposition of children without due consideration to the Social Development Secretariat .
“Every child that is picked up on the streets and taken to any orphanage, the SDS is suppose to have record. It is illegal to keep such children without first informing the SDS and the Act states that you cannot collect children from Kaduna , Kano, Maiduguri, and Rivers and bring them to Abuja because all the states of the federation have orphanages.
“If you move any child from Lagos and bring him to Abuja amounts to child trafficking.
All children must be from FCT and must have records of how they came into those orphanages and the records must be domicile with SDC. This woman has violated our laws and we have already written to inform her that we are going to seal the orphanage because she has not meet the requirements signed in the MoU,” she affirmed.
