17th December, 2019
By Richard Elesho
The Kogi State Government has rescued 39 babies abandoned by their mothers and prosecuted 15 child abuse offenders within the last three years.
In the same vein, the mother of one of the rescued babies has refused to accept her “claiming she doesn’t need her.”
Bola-Olorunsaiye Bolanle, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, disclosed this on Tuesday shortly after declaring open a 3-day training programme on Child Safety and Protection for Social Welfare workers across the state and staff of the Ministry.
She said her ministry had to partner with Action Aid Nigeria, AAN to give more bite to ongoing onslaught by the Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration on the increasing cases of child abuse in the society, stressing that the present situation where children were treated unjustly was no longer acceptable, and that offenders would no longer go unpunished any longer.
Explaining, Bolanle said the 39 rescued abandoned babies were cases of child abandonment at birth or infant and those gotten from mad women, adding that the 15 that were prosecuted were arrested for child abuse, in form of early marriage and violent related cases, while many of such cases were currently being treated in the court.
She said the essence of the programme was to equip social welfare workers and Staff of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in the state to know their right, duty or what to do when child’s right was violated in their various domains.
“Children safety, protection and development are not just obligatory but fundamental to any responsible government globally, the responsibility of course is our mandate and core functions which must be handled professionally with all seriousness it deserves,” she said.
Citing example of the controversial teenage marriage of a 13-year old girl in Ofu Local Government, rescue of an abandoned day-old baby at Otokiti village, a suburb of Lokoja, and arrest and prosecution of a woman in Lokoja that poured acid on a kid in her custody as many of other issues she had handled and resolved, she said that many orphanage homes operating in the state lacked necessary facilities, and that they would be checked and made to conform with acceptable best practices.
While she debunked the erroneous news peddled round that the Otokiti abandoned baby had been sold out for N1 million, she stated that the said baby was with them at the orphanage home, adding that the ministry would soon embark on auditing orphanage homes to know those kids to be adopted or returned to their original owner.
“The abandoned Otokiti baby is a sad story, we got the baby on October 8, with maggot infested all over her. We reported to the police, treated the baby and moved her to orphanage home. Due to public out cry, we decided to give back the baby to the owner, but the mother refused, saying, she doesn’t need the baby. The story of selling the baby at N1 million is false,” she said