Ify Obinabo, the Anambra State commissioner for women and social welfare, says her ministry has apprehended the founder of Arrows of God Orphanage, Rev. D.C. Ogo, and handed her over to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), following FIJ’s undercover investigation titled ‘Arrows of God’.
For 19 months, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FIJ, had studied, trailed, investigated and eventually penetrated the orphanage after receiving a tip-off in December 2021 that one baby at Arrows of God cost N1.5 million. He eventually bought his in July 2023 for N2 million.
The investigation uncovered how Arrows of God, one of Nigeria’s biggest orphanages, had been selling babies under the table in exchange for cash. Notably, the orphanage is owned by Rev. Lt. Col. D. C. Ogo, an ordained Minister, a former Principal of the Nigerian Army School of Nursing and Midwifery, a former Chief Matron, and a retired Army Colonel.
After FIJ released the story on Wednesday, August 10, and followed it up with a documentary the following day, NAPTIP took custody of the baby sold to FIJ, while officials of the police and the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development arrested a staff of the Ajah headquarters of the orphanage.
The authorities also sealed all four outlets of the orphanage in Lagos, an action that was soon reciprocated in Anambra State with the sealing off of the Anambra outlet of the orphanage by the state’s Ministry of Youth and Social Development.
On Wednesday, Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, Obinabo’s media aide, confirmed in a statement released on the ministry’s Facebook account that Ogo had been arrested and handed over to NAPTIP.
FIJ report
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