Kaduna State Government has said the 160 Almajirai rescued by officials of the State Government Task Force enforcing COVID-19 related regulations on Thursday will be profiled, documented and subjected to health checks, including test for COVID-19.
Daily Trust reports how the Taskforce officials stormed Dahiru Bauchi’s Almajirai school Located at Askolaye and evacuate the children to Hajj Camp, Mando.
It was gathered that security agencies comprised of Solders, Police, and Kaduna Environmental Laws Enforcement Agency KASTELEA marshals loaded the children in vehicles around midnight and took them away.
One of the senior malams at the school Allaramma Nasiru Ibrahim condemned the raid describing the government‘s action as very wrong.
Special Adviser to the Governor (Media & Communication), Muyiwa Adekeye in a statement issued on Friday said some of the rescued children are toddlers who are not yet able to properly identify themselves.
He said since March 2020, 31,092 almajirai have been repatriated to their states of origin since the Northern Governors Forum decided to jointly end the abuses associated with the Almajiri system.
He added that since then KDSG has undertaken a continuous exercise to identify locations where these children are being kept and taken steps to rescue them from such places and reunite them with their parents to continue their education.
He said the rescued children are from 13 states in the north and south of Nigeria while some of the kids are from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
He broke down the figure as follows Kebbi: 16, FCT Abuja: 2, Katsina: 15, Kano: 15, Zamfara: 8, Sokoto: 1, Nasarawa: 12, Niger: 5. Others are from Kwara: 4, Kogi: 2, Oyo: 2, Kaduna: 68, Niger Republic: 5, Burkina Faso: 3 and Benin Republic: 1.
He added that the locations in which the children were found were operating in violation of regulations that had ordered the closure of all schools since December 2020.
The government further appeal to citizens to take responsibility for the proper upbringing, welfare and care of their children, adding that the widespread practice of having children and then outsourcing and avoiding the responsibility for their moral, religious, and educational needs is neither supported by monotheistic religions nor
culture.
