Plateau Police return 185 children on Almajiri mission to Bauchi
The Plateau State Police Command at the weekend returned over 185 children intercepted in Jos by the Special Task Force (STF), back to Bauchi State.
The children, all male and within the age range of four to eight years were rescued on their way to Plateau, Kaduna and Nasarawa States.
During interrogation by men of the STF, three local Imams (Islamic Clerics), coordinating the children, said they took them from Bauchi and Jigawa States in search of Islamic knowledge.
The Clerics and driver of the truck conveying the children has since been charge to court by the Plateau State Police to serve as deterrent to others who indulge in same illegal act, said the Police Public Relation officer (PPRO), ASP Mathias Tyopev.
Returning the children to Bauchi State Government, the Emir of Bauchi, Alh. Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu, condemned the act, saying trafficking children by Islamic Clerics in search of Islamic knowledge is not part of Islam.
He said the parents of the children will be fished out and if found guilty will be made to face the law.
Similarly, the Commissioner of Women Affairs and Child Development, Hajiya Asabe Muhammed, said her ministry has carried out various sensitization programs educating parents on family planning, adding that the barbaric practice of child trafficking by a local Mallam is prohibited.
She said the children will be screened, fed, giving medical attention and returned back to their parents.
However, a legal practitioner in Jos, who is also the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), lawyer in Plateau, Barr. Awal Abdulliahi, said these local priests are not adhering to Islamic laws as have claimed.
He said the Imam’s that indulge In such acts end up exposing these children to all sorts of social vices, adding that some of them end up being sexually abused by the so called Mallam
He advised Muslim parents to give birth to only the number of children they can fend for, adding that sending children to the streets to beg for arms, is not part of Islam.
