Presidency decries child abuse, as police release chained kids to government  

The Presidency, yesterday, stressed the need to enforce statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education saying it was the panacea to rising cases of child abuse. 

This was as the Kaduna State Police Command said it has handed over 400 children and others found in shackles at an Arabic boarding school in Rigisa, Igabi Local Council to the state government to enable them to reunite with their families. 

The Presidency statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said: ‘‘In commending the police for their discovery of this horrific hub and arrest of suspected operators of the unedifying, so-called ‘reform institution,’ the administration of President Buhari categorically condemns rights abuses whether of adults or of children.

‘‘We are glad that Muslim authorities have dismissed the notion of the embarrassing and horrifying spectacle as Islamic school.  The place has indeed been described as a house of torture and a place of human slavery.

‘‘The President holds the view that children will be safeguarded from roaming the streets and protected from all evil influences that assail idle hands and idle minds, when they are sent to school. When he inaugurated the National Economic Council for the year 2019/2023 at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, President Buhari warned that keeping children away from school is a criminal offence.

‘He also stressed the need to take seriously and enforce the statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education, citing Section 18(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which he says places on all of us (public leaders and political office holders) an obligation to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education,” the statement added.

The command PPRO, DSP Yakubu Sabo, in an interview said the children had been handed to the state government for reunion with their families, while the seven suspects arrested are undergoing investigation.

“As soon as we complete our investigation, we are charging them to court,” he added. 

Contrary to assertions made by the school and some sources that the school was professionally established; the PPRO said the school has no operating license.