Founder, Vine Heritage Home Foundation, Kuje, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Stephen Olushola, has called on communities to stop the killing of twins and accept the circumstances around their birth.
Speaking yesterday when a team from Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA) visited his orphanage, he said the community kills twin babies, albino children, children with cerebral palsies, babies who start growing teeth from the top of their gum and babies whose mothers died during child birth.
He said the tribe which perpetrate the crime is cuts across Abaji, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and some parts of AMAC.
He stressed that there were 67 communities carrying out the act.
Olusola disclosed that after interventions from the FCT administration which set up a committee to enlighten the communities, 10 have agreed to stop killing the babies and they now give them out to people who will raise them.
He noted that babies whose mothers died during child birth were assumed to be the ones who killed their mothers, so they are buried alive along with their mothers.
According to him, he and his wife came to the FCT for missionary work to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to communities until they heard of such act from such communities and they appealed to them to give them kids who were born in such circumstances.
He said the first child he rescued from the abominable tradition was in 1996 and since then, he has rescued and raised up to 157 children.
Olusola noted that the children in his orphanage were not up for adoption because they all have parents apart from those who lost their mothers but still have their fathers.
He said the children remain in his home until they grow and hopefully, whenever the killings stop, their parents can come and carry their children.
On her part, President, DEPOWA, Dr. Omobolanle Olonisakin, represented by the Vice President, DEPOWA, Mrs Grace Balogun, said the aim of their visit was part of the association’s mandate to always reach out to the less privilege in the society.
