Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State says a commission has been established to ensure the implementation of the Physically Challenged Bill recently assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ganduje said this in Abuja at the 2019 Human Rights summit themed “Adopting Human Rights-Based Approach in the Public Sector Sustainable Development Agenda”.
The governor received a human rights award for his commitment to the cause of education, health, justice and other issues relating to the right to life from the National Human Rights Commission.
He said with the new policy of his government, girls of school age must complete secondary education before getting married to their suitors.
He said the threat associated with the Almajiri system of education was being addressed through its integration with western education in Kano State.
“We are killing so many birds with one stone. First of all, we are taking care of all the out-of-school children to make sure they are being given the opportunity for education.
“The much talked about almajiri system is now being integrated with modern system of education. The girl-child education, you know the problems of marrying underage girls, but from our policy now, all our girls have to at least finish secondary education before they are married,” he also said.
The governor, who said 3000 prisoners had been granted amnesty to decongest prisons, added that a committee was set up to ensure speedy dispensation of justice following the discovery that many people spent years in prisons without trial due to unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Ganduje, who said the government had provided free education for the nine abducted Kano children up to university level, added that two more children had been recovered, making 11.
He said the commission of inquiry constituted on the matter was not only to ensure the recovery of the children and punish the culprits but also to create awareness for parents to take care of their children so that enabling environment was not provided for the kidnappers.
“The highly celebrated Kano nine children that were kidnapped and taken to the other part of this country being converted, changed their names, religion, we instituted a judicious commission of inquiry to find out circumstances under which they were kidnapped, return them to their parents and assist in their socialization,” he added.
The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu, said the summit was organized to sensitise Nigerians on the significance of protecting human rights.
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