Samaila Kawu, the senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, interrupted the ongoing investigation of the suspected trafficking of 59 minors from Kano State to Nasarawa State on Thursday.
Kawu, who holds a PhD in political science from Al-Qalam University in Katsina State, tried to justify the transportation conditions of the children and told the police to hand the children over to him.
The Federal Capital Territory Police Command intercepted a cargo bus in which the minors were tightly packed along the Kano-Abuja Expressway on Monday.
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The sweaty minors alighting from the unventilated cargo bus usually used to transport raw food materials across the country.
Olatunji Disu, the FCT police commissioner, classified the event as a “suspected child abuse and trafficking” case. He added that the children were in police custody for further investigation.
“This incident has been classified as a case of suspected child abuse and trafficking given the circumstances and the absence of proper documentation or parental consent for the movement of the minors,” said Disu.
“At present, the suspects’ vehicle and all the children are with us while a thorough investigation is underway.”
However, Kawu showed up at the police office requesting that the children be handed over to him in order to return them to Kano.
Kawu’s argument, captured by Arise TV, that there was nothing wrong in transporting the children to Nasarawa for training introduced a surprising dimension to the case at the police command.
“It was a dramatic shift when the senator representing the Kano South Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly arrived at the police command asking that the children be released to him,” Arise TV reported on Thursday.
“He argues that there is nothing wrong in sending the children to be educated but says the authorities in Kano will look into the mode of transportation.”
Journalists then asked what Kawu’s comment was about the animalistic condition in which the children were being transported.
The bus while the children were inside it.
Kawu responded, “We will resolve it. We have secured another bus that will carry them back home. I am advising our people to stick to the teaching of Holy Prophet Muhammed (SAW) and the Quran in searching for knowledge. We have a procedure, we have a process provided by Islam. We must stick to that process. We must avoid traditional ways of doing things.”
Together with the children in the bus were three adults namely Ali Ibrahim, the driver; Alhassan Ibrahim, an assistant driver; and Idris Usman, the facilitator.
Usman told the police that he was taking the children to Sabo Gida, a village in Keffi, Nasarawa. He added that he had been to the village more than 18 times.
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According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), there are about 18.3 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, most of which are in the northern part of the country.
Some of these children are called “Almajiri children”. They are kids who usually leave their hometowns to another place for the purpose of Islamic education conducted through rote learning methods.
However, they always end up roaming the street with small bowls of different colours and sizes in their hands begging for food and alms and scavenging for leftovers. All this happens in their impressionable years when they are naturally expected to be under parental care and guardianship.
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