The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Jos, Plateau State and parents of some of the children rescued by the Department of State Security (DSS) are bickering over an alleged adoption and conversion of the children to Christianity.
Daily Trust reported on Monday how the DSS rescued 21 young children on June 14 in a house under the custody of the church at JMDB quarters in Tudun Wada, Jos North Local Government Area of the state.
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Reacting, the president of the church, The Rev (Dr) Stephen Baba Panya, in a statement on Saturday, noted that the church did not convert almajirai to Christianity, saying such practice was not the attitude of the church.
“These allegations are complete falsehood because the trainees, being persons of age, are available at any time for government officials to interact with, hear their respective stories, just as was done by the DSS recently.
“Trainees at the facility, as a matter of policy, are all adults. None of them is below the age of 18. Trainees are free to withdraw from the training once they are dissatisfied with either the policies or condition of the facility,” the statement added.
But in a response to ECWA’s statement, the father to one of the victims, Abdu Usman, said his son was 13 years old when he disappeared last year, and “would be 14 at the end of this month (July).”
On the claim that his son was taken to school run by the ECWA in Jos, the victim’s father said, “It is not possible to take my son to a place where I know he would not practise Islam. How can I take my son to learn business in a place where he would leave Islam? Who are the parents? Am I not the father to Nura? Or does Nura have other parents that I don’t know? That is not true. Nobody took them to anywhere in Jos. All I know is that I took him to Gombe to seek Qur’anic knowledge but he disappeared since October last year.
“I travelled as far as Katsina State and other places searching for him but did not see him. Anywhere I heard a story that some children were found, if went I would discover that they were not the ones. It was when I was called to Jos that I discovered that my son was amongst those found in the church building,” Usman said.
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