Founder of Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Fisayo Soyombo, carried out an investigation and eventually penetrated Arrows of God orphanage that had been selling babies under the table. The orphanage had sold a baby to Soyombo and his fake wife for N2 million in cahoots with the police and judiciary.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, Soyombo emphasized on the need for the government to discover those deeply involved, behind the scenes, in this scandal. He spoke on original documents acquired in the “adoption” process that suggested that he and his “wife” had been background checked and found suitable to adopt the baby. Meanwhile, this was a false transaction carried out with the cooperation of the police and the judiciary.
He stated that the police are complicit, saying, “Two court officials signed a document saying I was in court, my ‘wife’ was in court, the welfare officer was in court, and then they followed the process, and they saw that we could take care of the baby and they gave us. There is a seal. It is an original document, It’s not fake.”
Soyombo said that the government should identify the people in court involved in this document, why they signed the document and how much they got from it.
He said, “If the authorities are serious, they can follow the trail, they can find them, but what is clear is that Arrows of God Orphanage, Anambra, is a baby factory.”
Following the series of investigations by Soyombo, he has said that the baby is in a NAPTIP safe house and an arrest has been made, however, he stated that, “Reverend D.C. Ogo, right now, I don’t think she’s in custody. No one has told me anything about that. Efforts to track the people in court and the police, currently, not going on.
“The government can’t just go for the low hanging fruit. We have to get the people who are thickly involved, and those are the guys behind the scenes.”
He spoke of the long process a lady had gone through with the government to adopt a baby with no result, and the bureaucracy of adoption stating that it’s apparently about “money and connection to power.”
He said, “There was this woman who spoke to us who has been trying to adopt a child for several years. When she made her application to the government, she waited two full years until she got any contact from the government.
“Up till date, she doesn’t have a baby, and she started processing it in 2016. That’s seven years with no result.”
Soyombo stated the possibility of people acquiring babies through illegal means if the proper process by the government is lengthy and complicated.
He said, “It boils back to the government understanding that as long as it is tough and complicated to adopt a child legally, that black market will continue to thrive. If the government wants people to do things the right way, that right way cannot be more difficult than the wrong way. The right way has to be easier. That’s the incentive.”
Frances Ibiefo
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