The police have rescued over 300 children and youths from a small building called ‘reformation centre’ at Sabon Gari area of Daura, Katsina State, where the victims were subjected to abuse, sexual assaults, serious torture and various forms of inhuman treatment.
The incident happened barely three weeks after another batch of about 500 boys and men were rescued from a building in Kaduna where victims were exposed to similar inhuman treatments.
The centre, an Islamic or Almajiri School was discovered after scores of youths who were brought in for ‘rehabilitation,’ protested against their mistreatment last Sunday.
Known as Malam Bello Mai Almajiri ‘rehabilitation center’ after the name of the centre’s owner, the school before now received wayward children and youths for correction using religious principles.
The school, which had been operating for more than a decade, had had 360 youths who were brought in by their parents and wards from various states and countries, including Niger Republic and Cameroon.
But following the protest, 30 of them escaped while over 200 escaped, leaving only 65 at centre, a development that made the police to seal off the facility and arrested its owner and two of his staff members.
Speaking shortly after inspecting the school, the state Commissioner of Police (CP), Sanusi Buba said the facility was closed down, as it does not have the capacity to sustain the dissidents.
Buba confirmed that several of the youths were sodomised and beaten like slaves and that six of them had died due to the kind of conditions under which they were kept.
He lamented that those who were supposed to be training and correcting the youths, engaged in sodomy with them, adding that some of them escaped following the protest.
“Our preliminary investigation showed that the place belongs to Bello. He has been a Koranic teacher for a very long time and he has been around here for close to 40 years.
“From here he graduated to the level of collecting children for rehabilitation, some of them are under-aged, while others of adult age were brought here by their parents supposedly to rehabilitate them.
“Unfortunately, as you can see the place, small rooms of about six rooms, each accommodates over 40 of them with chains and subjected to all forms of inhuman treatment unbecoming of a civilised rehabilitation centre,” he said.
He explained that when the Police attention was drawn to the development, he mobilised his men to seal off the facility, and also directed the AC CID to get details and arrest the owners of the facility including Bello.
Responding to the incident, Emir of Daura, Alhaji Farouk Umar expressed shock over the discovery, saying it was saddening that something of such nature was happening in his domain.
Umar said Bello was among the leading Imams in the area and wondered why such activities could take place within an Islamic school, urging the police not to leave any stone unturned in bringing those involved in the inhuman treatment of the victims to book.
Elaborating, Katsina State Police command spokesman, Mr Gambo Isa, said that the small mud house was meant to be a reformation centre for individuals with character deformation. But the police had to raid the place after children who “miraculously” fled the centre raised an alarm for excessive abuses.
Isa said some of the rescued people, aged between 7 and 40 years old, were found in chains, some were handcuffed.
He said that the victims had suffered health complications having being subjected to poor sanitation. He added that the children were taken to the hospitals immediately to receive prompt medical attention for malnutrition and rashes, among other treatments.
He explained that such reformation centres are often seen in the North. Some parents take their children to religious centres when they engaged in any kind of misbehaviours which include drug addiction and stealing.
“This is something that has been the tradition in this side of the North,” said Isa.
However, the Police were prompted to raid and shut down the “reformation centre” after it received reports on several human rights violation.
“In a small room, you put over 300 people, and you say you are rehabilitating them,” Isa said. “This is nothing like rehabilitation,” he added.
The Katsina Police said there were so many complications including sexual harassment among the inmates, lack of social amenities and some children were chained on their legs and hands.
Eight people were arrested having been suspected to be coordinators of the centre.
Isa said the police have started tracing the victims’ families to reunite them.
The Guardian/ICIR
