JUST IN: LAGOS STATE SHUTS DOWN ARROWS OF GOD ORPHANAGE, RESCUE INHABITANTS, OTHERS (PICTURES)

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Allegations of Child Trafficking Levelled against Orphanage

Officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (MYSD) and men of the Nigeria Police Force, on Friday sealed up the Arrows of God Orphange in Ajah, Lagos State.

News had broke out earlier in the week that for 19 months, investigative journalist ‘FISAYO SOYOMBO studied, trailed, investigated and eventually penetrated a Christian orphanage that had been selling babies under the table. When he first received the tip-off in December 2021, one baby cost N1.5 million. Nineteen months later when he finally bought his, the ‘cost’ had jumped to N2 million, excluding a list of sundry pre-purchase expenses and covert requests for the greasing of palms. This investigation exposes not only how a popular Lagos-headquartered orphanage home was attracting donors with its religious tenets, longstanding existence, media mileage and strategic positioning in Nigeria’s commercial capital before diverting them to the South-East for backdoor cash-for-baby transactions, it also reveals how the sales were executed with the collusion of the police and the judiciary.

On Friday evening, MYSD officials and policemen stormed the premises of Arrows of God Orphanage, Off Oke Ira Nla Rd, Ajah and sealed up the premises.

The officials then took all staff and inhabitants into buses for onward conveyance to an undisclosed location.