Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: July 29, 2023
The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation. (Psalm 118:14)
Let us continue to pray for the children of the Du Merci centres for vulnerable children in Nigeria. We also lift up Professor Solomon Tarfa and his wife Mercy, who co-founded the Du Merci centres.
The Tarfas have filed a legal case to secure the return of 16 children who were seized following the unjust arrest of Professor Tarfa on Christmas Day, 2019. Although multiple false charges were levelled at him, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the Tarfas were ‘singled out because of their Christian faith and because they are running an orphanage in a predominantly Muslim area.’
Professor Tarfa was fully acquitted and freed in January 2023 – finally cleared of every false charge. However, the children have still not been returned to the custody and care of the Tarfas, who are the only parents most of them have ever known.
Initial hearing delayed
On 18 July, an initial hearing was deferred after the lawyer representing the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development failed to attend. The lawyer also failed to delegate the case to someone else.
In order to avoid waiting until 12 October, when the judiciary return from their annual vacation, the Tarfas decided to transfer the case to a vacation judge. This should, hopefully, allow the case to be heard within the next week.
This family has suffered for far too long. There is no legitimate reason why the children should not have been automatically returned when Professor Tarfa was acquitted in in 2021 of child abduction charges. Yet this is the latest in a long line of legal delays, adjournments and deferrals which has prolonged the family’s anguish for more than three years.
Meanwhile, the children have suffered immeasurably; physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Please pray:
- That Professor Solomon and Mercy would receive a new hearing date as soon as possible, without any further delays or deferrals.
- That the judge will act justly to reunite this family once and for all.
- For the restoration, recovery and wellbeing of all the Du Merci children. We think especially of Moses who suffered first-degree burns in a fire in 2020, at the government-run home where he was placed.
- Pray also for the five youngest children, who were relocated to a remote location in 2021 where they were obliged to recite Arabic, study the Qur’an and attend a mosque. They also had their names changed.
- For reparations and compensation in accordance with international law; this was the recommendation of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2021.