Emmanuel Thomas
[wysija_form id=”1″]April 24, 2015 – At Least 62 vibrant babies abandoned in various places in Lagos State have been rescued by the state government. A breakdown of the figure shows that 34 were healthy females while 28 were lively males.
A further breakdown shows that 8 of them were liberated in June 2014, 8 in July, 6 in August, 8 in September, 7 in October, 4 in November, 4 in December while 6 were freed in January 2015. Four of others were liberated in February while 7 were saved in March this year.
Making the revelation in Lagos was Permanent Secretary, Youth and Social Development, Dr. Adesegun Oshinyimika said that the state government is committed to ensure that adequate care and protection are provided for vulnerable children, abandoned, homeless, abused and other children whose rights and privileges are trampled upon.
He said the child protection unit of the ministry is responsible for rescue and referral of all abandoned babies, lost but found and children in registered orphanages.
“It also carried out child audit on the registered orphanages in order to conduct a case review of the children in their homes with a view to decongesting the homes and discouraging institutionalisation”, he said.
Oshinyimika said that 111 applications were received for adoption but that only 85 babies were released for implementation while 76 adoptions were legalized through the family courts.
According to him, 51 of the cases were local, 18 were international, 4 were relative international adoption while one fostering order was extended at the family courts. He said that in the last one year, 940 children who are either beggars, destitute or mentally challenged were rescued from the street.
He said operation rescue is a continuous exercise adding that 37 persons suspected to be criminals were handed over to task force for prosecution while 910 were released to their relatives with the intent of taking them back to states of origin.
He said 12 were referred by child protection units for further investigation, 34 were referred by special correctional centres for boys in Oregun while 53 are undergoing rehabilitation in Isheri . He said that another 75 are at the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Persons with disabilities, Owutu in Ikorodu.
