NAN
Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia on Thursday inaugurated an inter-agency committee to check sales of babies by unscrupulous social homes in the state.
Speaking at the inauguration at the Government House, Umuahia, Orji said that his administration was determined to ensure sanity in the activities of social and motherless babies’ homes in the state.
He expressed concern over the involvement of some unscrupulous persons in the illicit act in the state.
‘’These nefarious activities are sometimes carried out by some unscrupulous owners of social/motherless babies’ homes in the state,’’ he said.
The governor said that institutions, which were ”created to provide important social services to our people are now being used for purposes other than what they are supposed to serve.
”Our government has decided to take all the necessary actions to check the spread of this ugly situation.’’
He said the illegal act was being perpetrated with the connivance of registered and unregistered homes in the state.
”Our state has also observed that some homes liaise with doctors, nurses and the get-rich-quick desperate individuals to foster babies for intending adoptive parents without been duly registered,’’ he said.
Orji said that the practice negated the state’s Child Rights Law and the aims and objectives of setting up such homes by the government.
Responding, the chairman of the committee and Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Chief Bridget Nwaejike, said that the phenomenon had dragged the image of the state in the mud.
Nwaejike said that the illegal activities were traced to some registered and unregistered homes in the state.
‘’The anti-social activities of these homes have continued to portray Abia in a bad light before the public,’’ she said.
Nwaejike said that the development led to the revocation of the licences of all the homes in the state on May 14.
NAN reports that members of the committee included representatives of the State Security Service, the police, Civil Defence, Immigration, proprietors of social homes and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
