Source: www.persecution.org
Date: January 30, 2023
Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – ICC has previously reported on the arrest of Professor Solomon Tarfa, who, along with his wife, founded Du Merci orphanage in Nigeria’s Kano state in 1996. For over two decades, the couple rescued abandoned children with the mission “to glorify God by ministering to orphans and vulnerable children by meeting their mental, physical, spiritual and social needs.”
Police raided the orphanage on Christmas Day 2019 and arrested Professor Tarfa without bail. The 27 children living in the orphanage were transferred to government-run facilities. Even though Professor Tarfa’s wife, Mercy, could provide all the necessary documents, the government declared that the orphanage was unregistered and shut it down. The children were given Islamic names and taken to daily Muslim prayers once they were situated in the government facilities.
Since then, Professor Tarfa has been serving a two-year prison sentence after he was charged with abducting children from their legal guardians to hold them in an unregistered orphanage and forging a certificate of registration for the orphanage.
Professor Tarfa was acquitted of the abduction charges in June of 2021 and was released on bail. However, he still faced forgery charges until his full acquittal on January 27, 2023. ICC previously reported on the unjust way authorities prolonged his trial, highlighting the discrimination and persecution Christians face within Nigeria’s legal system.
Kano State, where Du Merci Orphanage is located, is in the northern part of Nigeria, a region governed by Islamic Sharia law, despite the country claiming to be secular. When religion takes over the government, as it has in much of Nigeria’s north, it creates a social and judicial hierarchy along religious lines. Moreover, it makes religious minorities, in this case, Christians, suffer due to their lack of conformity.
Please join ICC in praising the Lord for Professor Tarfa’s acquittal.
HOW TO PRAY: Pray for provision for all the children who lived in this orphanage. Praise God for Professor Tarfa’s acquittal. Pray for equal treatment of Christians in Nigeria’s justice system.