The Kano State authorities are reportedly seeking a court order to ensure that David Solomon Tarfa, who died on 28 January and was one of eight children seized from the Du Merci orphanages in 2019 still held in a government-run orphanage in the Kano State capital, to be buried as a Muslim.
David Solomon Tarfa, 13, was found dead by his siblings on the morning of 28 January in the room where he had been resting. CSW’s sources report that he had been suffering from debilitating stomach pain for over a week that had rendered him weak, unable to eat and unable to walk, but had received no medical treatment, despite the authorities at the orphanage being aware of his illness.
David’s body was initially taken to Nasarawa Hospital in Kano City, and was subsequently transferred to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, as Nasarawa Hospital lacked the facilities for an autopsy. Recent reports indicate that the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs, Children and Disabled and the Attorney General of Kano filed a suit at the Juvenile Court on 3 February seeking an order directing a post-mortem to determine the cause of David’s death, and another order directing the government-run Nasarawa Orphanage where he died to release his body after the post-mortem for burial in accordance with Islamic rites, as they claim he converted to Islam and was renamed Dauda Suleiman.
David was among 27 children taken from the Du Merci Centres in Kano and Kaduna States following raids by officers from the police force and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on 25 and 31 December 2019, during which the centres’ co-founder and the children’s adopted father, Professor Solomon Musa Tarfa, was arrested. The Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs subsequently placed them in the Nasarawa Orphanage, where they have experienced mistreatment, ostracism, neglect and pressure to convert. Those found to have reached the age of majority were eventually released, leaving 16 minors in the orphanage.
Eight of the older children were released on 13 August 2025, after one began experiencing mental health challenges. However, the eight younger ones, including David, were obliged to remain at the orphanage ‘for safe keeping’ pending a review by the Attorney General of Kano State of the Kano State High Court’s consent judgement that had stipulated the formal return of all of the children to the Tarfas on or before 19 March 2025.
Legal proceedings continue to be subject to deferments. The latest court hearing was scheduled for 26 January 2026. However, upon arrival at the court in Kano, the Tarfas’ representatives were informed at around 9.30am by the judge that the registrar had forgotten to give a copy of the case file to the state lawyer, who was absent, and the case was adjourned until 2 March.
Nigeria is party to regional and international legislation recognising a child’s right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and stipulating the primary responsibility of parents or guardians for the religious instruction of their children. The child’s right to FoRB is also recognised tacitly in the federal constitution. Moreover, in her latest report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) the UN Special Rapporteur on FoRB emphasised that in the absence of stated funeral preferences by the deceased, the rights holders of funeral rights are their next of kin and family, and then their ‘community of practice.’
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘We extend deepest condolences to the entire Tarfa family, who have been traumatised further by David’s untimely demise. While the cause of his death is yet to be determined definitively, it is clear that negligence on the part of those running the orphanage, who failed to source assistance for a child in their care whose health was deteriorating visibly, meant he died alone and his final days were spent in excruciating pain. That he died after being separated for close to seven years from the only parents he knew is particularly troubling. CSW urges the Kano State authorities, who have already breached the High Court order for the children’s release, to refrain from compounding this injustice, and to allow David, whose alleged conversion is questionable given he was a minor and held arbitrarily since 2019, to be laid to rest accordingly by his family at a time and place of their choosing.’