In Abuja 130 orphans out in the cold as FCT demolishes orphanage

These are not the best of times for the owners of Divine Wounds of Jesus Christ, an 

orphanage and rehabilitation home situated near Liberty Hotels, Arab Road, Kubwa, Abuja, as the Department of Development Control, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration unleashed bulldozers on the orphanage. By the time the bulldozers went off, about 130 orphans were left homeless.

When The Guardian visited the home on Friday, personal effects of the inmates, utensils and sundry belongings of the orphanage and its school were strewn across the entire plot of land, which hitherto housed the facility, while the orphans and their teachers clustered under trees writing their terminal examination.

Jointly established by Mr. Cyril Ezemoka, and his wife Victoria, as part of their contribution to the wellbeing of the society, the orphanage, which also serves as a school started operations in 2009, and was formally launched in 2011, with a staff strength of 50 workers, who ran two shifts weekly.

After the death of her husband in 2014, the management of the home fell squarely on Mrs. Victoria Ezemoka who serves as the founding mother/ proprietress.

Trouble started a few years ago when the younger brother to the deceased allegedly showed up and informed the widow that his late brother had officially transferred the property to him.

Expectedly, the claim led to litigations as both the proprietress and the deceased brother both laid claims to ownership of the property.

An eyewitness and a mechanic, who shares boundary with the facility, Mr. Onuora Oko, told The Guardian that the incident came as a surprise to all of them.

Oko said, “The FCDA people first came a few weeks ago to demolish a neighbour’s house close to this home and left, but we were very surprised when they came on Tuesday and started demolishing the orphanage. They even came from behind, broke the fence before they started the demolition. They went ahead to cease and smash mobile handsets of people that attempted to video what they were doing.”

One of the orphans, Joseph Dawaliu from Kaduna State, told The Guardian, “We are feeling very bad because since the demolition, our education has been affected as we were in the middle of examination. We are now writing our examinations under these trees as you can see. I am now a Primary 5 pupil in this school, if this problem is not solved, and a new school built for us, where do we go from here?”

An assistant to the director of the home, Mr. Victor Godwin informed The Guardian that “it was disheartening that the FCDA demolished this property without any prior notice. It is unheard of that government no longer abide by the Constitution because if it does, it ought to know that this matter is already before the courts. So, why has the government taken laws into its hands?

“You can see that the pupils are now writing their terminal exams under these trees. What our madam now does is to take these children to one of her private homes, which is far away from here to enable them sleep well, pending when solution comes. My worry is that our hostel has been destroyed; our classrooms, our computer laboratory, dinning hall, poultry have all been destroyed,” he lamented
==========================================
PROJECT ANCHORED BY;
FUND ORPHANAGES,ORPHANS, WIDOWS FOUNDATION
With your support of $100+ seed/working Capital , we shall deploy our expertise in Fundraising to Raise over $25k to the above home.To support, send text to +2348030485016