Enugu – Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State on Monday inaugurated a child fostering and adoption committee to clamp down on baby factories in the state.
The 15-member committee is headed by the Archbishop of the Anglican Ecclesiastical Province, Enugu, Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma.
Members of the committee include the commissioners for gender and social development, information and the attorney-general and commissioner for justice.
Others are traditional rulers, representatives of the police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as well as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).
Inaugurating the committee in Enugu, the governor charged the members to work out modalities for a trust fund to cater for abandoned children in the state.
The governor urged the committee to set up a machinery to facilitate laws protecting children and young people as well as to improve the quality of administration of child justice in the state.
He charged the ministry of gender affairs to monitor and report cases of child abuse and trafficking and to identify places where illegal adoptions were carried out.
The governor regretted that in spite of enabling laws for the welfare of children, illegal maternity homes had continued to be on the rise.
“It is the obligation of the society to treat children as special and to adequately love and care for them from birth until they can fend for themselves.
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“But it has become evident that children are now being sold like commodities.
“As a responsible government, we cannot allow this to continue to exist in Enugu State,” he said.
The governor stressed the need for strict compliance with due process in the adoption of babies to guarantee their security.
Ugwuanyi urged the committee to be diligent in discharging its duties and also appealed to the members of the public to accord the committee the necessary support to succeed.
Responding, the Chairman of the committee, Bishop Chukwuma, described the task as `enormous’.
Chukwuma said that successive administrations in the state had muted the idea in the past but could not muster the will to tackle the menace.
“This is an area we have treaded before and are happy that you have pushed the Child’s Right Act to be passed by the state assembly.
“We had earlier closed down some illegal maternity homes in the state but they sprang up again because the committee could not continue its work,” he said.
Chukwuma said that incidences of child trafficking and illegal adoption were on the rise in the state because the perpetrators were aided by some security agencies and unscrupulous officials of the state ministry of gender affairs.
He said that the committee would liaise with religious organisations, traditional rulers, security agencies and the NAPTIP to achieve results.
The bishop identified poverty as the root cause of the ill destroying young girls in the society.
“But with your zeal and pragmatic way of doing things, every child in this state must be protected,” Chukwuma said. (NAN)