A Christian couple who founded a ministry for vulnerable children have launched a petition demanding the release of 16 children who are being held by the Kano State authorities in Nigeria.
The ordeal began in December 2019 when state representatives seized 27 children from Du Merci Centres after its co-founder and the children’s adopted father, Professor Solomon Musa Tarfa, was arrested.
Tarfa, who since 1996 has devoted his life to helping vulnerable children, was accused of kidnapping and abduction as well as forging documentation giving him the right to run an orphanage.
Tarfa was cleared of the kidnapping and abduction charges but spent time in prison after being found guilty of forgery, although this was later thrown out on appeal.
During his time in prison, the children were held in state facilities where they were given Muslim names and required to practise Islam. In one case a boy was refused medical treatment after burning himself, leaving him permanently disfigured, according to International Christian Concern.
Eleven older children were eventually released, but 16 predominantly younger ones are still in government custody.
A number of legal appeals led to an agreement to hand the children over in March. However on the day of the supposed handover the Commissioner for Women Affairs stated that it would no longer go ahead, pending an inter-ministry review of the court’s decision. The review is still pending.
Now Tarfa and his wife Mercy have launched a petition demanding the immediate release of the children and an investigation into human rights violations that may have been committed against them while in government care.
The case has been carefully followed by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, whose founder and President, Mervyn Thomas said, "CSW stands with the Tarfas in calling for the immediate return of the 16 remaining children who have now been unjustly separated from them for over five and a half years.
“We insist that the Kano State government, which is currently disregarding the court’s instructions to return these children to the Tarfas’ care, must make reparations to this family for the years of trauma and injustice to which they have been subjected through needlessly prolonged legal proceedings and the appalling mistreatment of these children whilst in the government’s so-called ‘care’.”
