Anambra commissioner for Women’s Affairs, Hon Ifeyinwa Obinabo has giving insight to the only way to adopt a baby legally in Anambra.
Mrs Obinabo while speaking in an interview at her office recently in Awka the state capital, admitted that every job undertaken by her ministry comes with its own level of hassles but that with the support of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, they have been successful.
“First is that you must come to this ministry and apply that you want to adopt a child. When I get the application, I will now minute on it to head of child unit. From there, we now start documentation when we see a child for you.
“Also, it is only here in this office that anyone is permitted to be handed over children that are legally adopted. The homes from where the children are to be adopted will bring them here after proper documentation. After that we will send our officials for inspection.
“We must go to the home of the person where the child would be taken to, so that we make that the place is conducive, and also ensure that the reasons you gave for wanting to adopt a child is true. Those are the investigations we do.
Reacting to the case of the proprietor of Arrow of God Orphanage, the commissioner said the proprietor did not follow duo process.
“In the case of the proprietor of Arrow of God Orphanage, she did not do any of this things. By the way, the woman is not supposed to handle anything like adoption. For any adoption to be authentic, my signature and the signature of the permanent secretary of this ministry must be in the adoption document.
“Also the signature of the magistrate of our special court must also be on the adoption paper. You know Mr Governor opened special court for us for speedy trial of matters relating to child issues. The signature of the magistrate has to be there. These three signatures must be there and if any of them is missing, then it is illegal.
“In the case of the Arrows of God Orphanage, my signature wasn’t there, that of the permanent secretary was not there, they did not go to our special court to obtain the consent of the magistrate, they also failed to bring the baby here, which is the only place that handing over children is done. She did everything by herself, and no inspection was done.
“Even the Investigative journalist who posed as the one wanting to adopt the child hired a woman to pose as his wife, and that will show you that she did not investigate where the baby was being taken, but simply collected money from them, prayed for them and handed the child to them, without even knowing where the child is being taken to. So we have been investigating, because we must know the source of the baby. If adoption is done here, we ensure that we know the source of the baby that are being put up for adoption”.
