[dropcap]E[/dropcap]xtortion of money and child adoption racketeering by some staff of Delta state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development is now the order of the day. Presently about ten staff of the ministry are currently facing disciplinary actions for various offences including extortion of money and child adoption racketeering, Grassroots Publishers can authoritatively report.
The state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Omatsola Williams, confirmed this development saying some of the staff in the ministry involved in the adoption racket include; clerks, drivers and security men are already facing disciplinary actions.
Absolving herself and her ministry from a staff who allegedly collected N100, 000 from a female Portuguese to facilitate an adoption process, Mrs. Omatsola said, “I have warned, advised and told them (staff), that anybody involved in collecting money for adoption is on their own because that is not the directive of the ministry as we do not ask them to collect money from anybody aside administrative fee.
“We have 10 persons including messengers, clerks and security guards facing disciplinary action for various offences and the ministry is not leaving any stone unturned in addressing such issues. There has been a synergy on adoption racketeering before I took over as commissioner, but I am still trying to stop it. One of them even took me to court but that would not deter us.
“At a time, I was able to stop a staff who had collected N500, 000 and another who collected N1 million to facilitate an adoption process. They had already collected the money from the person but I succeeded in collecting it back and refunded it.”, Mrs. Omatsola disclosed.