Kaduna school which chained students re-opens

Two years after the Kaduna State Government shutdown a local rehabilitation centre and an Islamiyya school in the Rigasa community of Igabi Local Government Area of the state, Arewa Trust Weekly reports it is back in operation.     

Security agents had in 2019 raided the Malam Nigga rehabilitation centre located at Kwanar Gurguwa and the Ahmad Ibn Hambal Islamiyya School‎ both in the Rigasa community of Igabi LGA of the state. 

At the Malam Nigga Rehabilitation Centre, inmates alleged to be drug addicts were found chained. Officials claimed that they were being taught carpentry, welding and other skills.  

Similarly, children were found chained and left in dehumanising conditions at Ahmad Ibn Hambal Islamiyya School. One of the school’s Directors, Auwal El’Zubair had claimed the children were kept in that condition with the consent of their parents. However, security agents rescued about 300 students from the school while their tutors were remanded at the Kaduna Correctional Centre. 

However, two years since the raid, residents of Rigasa community are calling on the state government to reopen the rehabilitation centre or find alternative means stressing that the former inmates have returned to their old delinquent behaviour. Arewa Trust Weekly correspondent who visited the community discovered that the Malam Nigga Rehabilitation Centre, which used to be a beehive of activities with inmates in their red uniforms remains shut. 

A resident of the community who asked not to be named said youths who were incarcerated in the centre have returned to their delinquent ways but said a few had been lucky and have since stayed away from drugs. 

“Some of the inmates usually come for a visit to the centre looking very calm but there are those who after leaving here, we learnt have returned to their bad habits of taking drugs,” he said. He said most parents could not control their children after they were returned to them by the authorities adding that many have no resources to seek psychiatric help for their children.  

Another resident, Salis Kano blamed the government for closing the rehabilitation centres without providing an alternative for parents. Salis said the centre can function with a government monitoring team instead of closing it completely since the government has no alternative to accommodate such addicts. 

At the Ahmad Ibn Hambal school in the same community, it was discovered that the school had resumed classes but the management no longer chain students. The school gate was locked during the visit but our correspondent gathered from residents that the children now resume school in the mornings and close in the evenings. 

A resident of the community, Malam Mohammad, said the school no longer chains stubborn children, which was the main reason it was raided and shutdown two years ago. 

“The school now runs daily classes from morning to evening, teaching Qur’an and even western education. They no longer put the students in chains for misbehaving as they used to, we are happy with the changes now,” he said. 

According to him, as parents, they are yet to receive any complaint from students or parents about the school’s operations.  

When contacted, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Jalige who was not in the office at the time of the raid said he was yet to get details of the condition of the school.