The Chief Executive Officer of the Victims of Need Social and Motherless Babies Home, Aba, Lady Von Obiegbunam, has called on the Abia State Police Command to issue a public retraction and apology over what she described as the wrongful arrest, parade and detention of herself, three female inmates and 10 children under her care in October 2025.

Speaking in Aba, Von said the recent visit of the Abia State First Lady, Mrs Priscilla Chidinma Otti, to the orphanage had further confirmed that the facility was duly recognised and registered by the state government, and should put to rest allegations of child trafficking earlier levelled against it.

Von expressed appreciation to the First Lady, who visited the home on January 8, 2026, as part of a tour of selected orphanages and vulnerable institutions across the state.

According to her, the visit underscored the legitimacy of the home and the work it carries out on behalf of the state.

She said, “Now that the status of my home has been ascertained, and the police found no evidence to support their suspicion, I and my orphanage should be exonerated from being tagged as a suspected child trafficking facility.”

She urged the police to correct what she described as the “wrong public impression” created by a press release issued on October 10, 2025, following a raid on the orphanage a day earlier.

Von said police officers stormed the facility along Aba–Owerri Road on October 9, arrested her alongside three girls in residence, and took away 10 children under her care. She added that all of them were publicly paraded, transferred to Umuahia and detained for four days at the State Criminal Investigation Department as suspected child traffickers.

Von said the children were placed in her care by the Abia State Ministry of Women Affairs, adding that the ministry wrote to the police on October 10, 2025, identifying the 10 children by name and requesting their immediate release.

She also said she presented official letters from the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Office of the Governor, Vulnerable Groups and Poverty Alleviation Department, handing over custody of the three girls who were arrested with her.

According to her, the state authorised the placement of the children in the facility because it lacked adequate shelters for vulnerable groups. “The State does not have a facility for the vulnerable, abandoned, displaced and gender-based violence victims. So, we stand in on behalf of the State to provide shelter, nutrition and psychosocial support,” she said. “We are providing essential services for the State to ensure children in Abia maximise their potentials, but instead of being applauded, we are disgraced by a security agency.”

The Abia State Police Command, however, had in a statement dated October 10, 2025, said the raid followed a complaint received on September 27, 2025, at Ohuru Isimiri Police Divisional Headquarters.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Maureen Chinaka, said the complainant alleged that a woman from Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, lost her two children after being lured to Aba by a man under the guise of marriage.

According to the police statement, “On arrival in Aba, the man asked her to get food for herself and the children, while he stays with the children. On her return, she did not see the man and her children, and all efforts to reach him proved abortive.”

The police said officers, acting on what they described as credible intelligence, stormed the residence where suspected stolen children were kept, arrested four suspects and rescued seven infants and three children.

Von maintained that no evidence was found to substantiate the allegations against her or the home, noting that all those arrested were released on October 13, 2025. She said the police should now “do the needful” by withdrawing the publication and clearing the name of the orphanage to protect it from further harassment.

When contacted, the police spokesperson, DSP Chinaka, declined to comment further on the matter.

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