Kaduna govt rescues 160 Almajirai from illegal facilities

Officials of the Kaduna State Government Task Force enforcing COVID-19 related regulations have rescued 160 children, including nine ECOWAS citizens believed to be Almajirai from locations that are neither licensed as schools nor as children’s homes in the State capital.

The State government said, “Since March 2020, 31,092 almajiri children have been repatriated to their states of origin since the Northern Governors Forum decided to jointly end the abuses associated with the Almajiri system. 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 patents to continue their education. As part of the implementation of this policy, Kaduna State has received 1,118 children from the state who were relocated from other states”.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor (Media & Communication), Muyiwa Adekeye, it said, “Officials of the Kaduna State Government Task Force enforcing COVID-19 related regulations have rescued 160 children from locations that are neither authorised and licensed as schools nor as children’s homes.

“Some of the rescued children are toddlers who are not yet able to properly identify themselves. The rescued children are from 13 States in the north and south of Nigeria. Some of the kids are from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso and the Niger Republic.

“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."