The Jam’iyyar Matan Arewa (JMA) has called for the prosecution of negligent parents, especially in the northern part of the country.
The President of JMAS, Hajiya Rabi Musa Saulawa, who made the call yesterday while reacting to the recent killing of a five-year-old girl in Kano State, blamed some parents for not protecting their children.
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Hajiya Rabi said, “Using Hanifa as a case study, I believe there is serious irresponsibility on the part of the parents. A child, five-year-old, as beautiful as that late Halifa, should not have been left without a supervisor.
“l want to even find out how she was even taken, we know that the person that took her and killed her was her teacher, so it was quite okay for her to accept him because he was not a stranger, but where was she coming from, some say she was coming from Islamiyya, was she alone?
“This things are happening in the North because we the parents are shying away from our responsibilities and God is going to ask us how we looked after the children we brought to the world because only God knows what happened to her before she was killed.
“The mother said when she saw her daughter’s killer she slapped him, she should have slapped herself, if I were her, I would have slapped myself because it is my responsibility to keep my child safe and I could not do it.”
She added, “We are negligent when it comes to our children, and this is the case with the almajiri and our young girls who hawk.”
She, therefore, urged the government to establish a law that would prosecute negligent parents, saying, “Unless we have such a law, parents will continue neglecting their responsibilities towards their children.”
According to her, JMA, in collaboration with FIDA, has opened an office at the JMA Headquarters to cater for victims of sexual violence and other women and children issues.
Maryam Ahmadu-Suka & Edward Yusufu
