Mr. Agboola Dabiri, Commissioner for Youths and Social Development gave this information on Wednesday while addressing the press
The Lagos State government has rescued 162 babies, abused children in about three baby factories within the state.
Mr. Agboola Dabiri, Commissioner for Youths and Social Development gave this information on Wednesday while addressing the press.
Dabiri said: “To ensure protection for children in Lagos State, we have shut three illegal orphanages homes. Of these, one operates as baby factory while two others were unregistered homes.
“The children and teenagers rescued from the baby factory and homes were placed at government approved homes for care and protection,”
According to him, 1,680 children among who were either beggars, destitute, mentally challenged persons were cleared off the road.
“162 Children who were rescued during the period under review, comprises 62 Males and 100 Females. Also, 1,680 beggars/destitute/mentally challenged persons and street children were rescued off the streets of Lagos, out of which 1,299 were released to their relations for re-integration.” the commissioner said.
On the other hand, Dabiri condemned the increasing rate at which youth in the state engage in the use of hard drugs and other social vices.
He said, “They are now into strange things like intake of codeine, tramadol, mixture of soda drinks and bleach, toothpaste, use of LCD tablets, even to the extent of the use of the venom of black mamba snake.
“A lot of programmes have been lined up to tackle the menace and we will fight it to a standstill. We are equally engaging non-governmental agencies and youth organisations for them to sensitise their members and youths on peaceful conduct,”
The Commissioner said that the state’s youth policy, which was launched in 2016 is a policy enacted to direct activities of youths in the state.
According to him, the state government was able to train a total of 13,314 youths in different vocations and that the Ministry had also began execution of the Youth Economic Empowerment Scheme that would train a total of 900 youths in different vocations for a period of nine months.