How Pregnant Girls ‘Were Disappearing’ After Delivering Their Babies at Arrows of God Orphanage

How Pregnant Girls ‘Were Disappearing’ After Delivering Their Babies at Arrows of God Orphanage

Chisolum Soromtochukwu Okeke, a Facebook user, has narrated how Deborah Ogo, the founder of the Arrows of God Orphanage, always attended church with a retinue of pregnant young girls who were no longer seen once they had put to bed.

Okeke, who was reacting to Ogo’s remandment in prison as a result of FIJ’s 19-month-long undercover investigation published on August 10, 2023, said he made the observation while attending Dunamis International Gospel Centre in Onitsha between 2015 and 2020.

According to Okeke, Ogo would pack good-looking young pregnant girls and young nursing mothers in a “big air-conditioned bus” to show up at every church service while serving as a centre of attraction, giving testimonies about God’s faithfulness.

“If you attended Dunamis Church Onitsha between 2015 & 2020, you’ll know/remember this orphanage. They were present in all services,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

‘Fisayo Soyombo, the founder and editor-in-chief of FIJ, had studied, trailed, investigated and eventually penetrated the orphanage after receiving a tip-off in December 2021 that one baby at Arrows of God cost N1.5 million. He eventually bought his in July 2023 for N2 million.

“They had a bus and always showed up to every service with different young pregnant girls and newborn babies. It seemed like a new pregnant girl or two joined them in the facility every new week,” Okeke also said.

According to Okeke, it appeared new girls and teens joined the orphanage every week. These pregnant teenagers frequently joined and left the orphanage, leaving church members concerned by the sudden disappearance of the girls after delivering their babies.

“Sometimes, one of the girls would stop coming to church and when asked, they’d say she had put to bed and left. They also had other kids with them ranging from newborn babies, toddlers, preteens, teenagers and young adults. They were running an orphanage,” Okeke said.

“These kids are not the regular orphanage kids; they wore the best clothes, went to good schools and the newborns were fed the best milk and they had this big air-conditioned bus. They related so well amongst themselves, like one big happy family.

“The owner of the orphanage would always share testimonies of God’s faithfulness and blessings= upon her, the team, kids and the orphanage as a whole. She always talked about how God did this and that for them and we always rejoiced with them.”

In all of this, Okeke said some church members were alarmed at the rate at which the pregnant girls left the orphanage shortly after giving birth to their babies.

“But one thing was questionable though; when a pregnant girl shows up with them, she puts to bed and suddenly stops coming to church and when you ask, they tell you she’s gone or she didn’t come but you will never see the baby she had,” said Okeke.

“A lot of people (myself inclusive) believed that with the pregnant girls, she was helping these girls (who were mostly teenagers) have a safe place to have their babies because we felt they were kicked out by their parents or something.

“Colour me shocked when I came online this evening to see that all these years, this woman has been a criminal. She has been selling these babies and doing a whole lot of things. I learned ‘Fisayo Soyombo went undercover, did a few brave things and uncovered this woman and her criminal activities.”

Talking about his personal experience, Okeke said he was thankful that a family friend he encouraged to stay in the orphanage to deliver a baby later changed her mind.

“The funny thing is that one of our family friends then was having a baby and they needed for her to stay somewhere and have the baby, so I suggested this orphanage to them and said so many glowing yet true things about them. Somehow, they changed their minds.

“Na so, she for born and this woman go sell the pikin and police go carry me do accomplice to crime,” he said in Pidgin.

Ogo is currently being prosecuted by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). She was remanded in prison in the previous week until the bail condition granted her by a Federal High Court was fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Khadijat Vivian, a 38-year-old-woman, has since come forward to say Rev. Ogo forcefully took her newborn baby from her 23 years ago. She has been crying out for help in retrieving the baby.