The Kano Emirate Council and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) have warned against the kidnapping and selling of children of North extraction in the Southern part of the country, warning that the act must be stopped to ensure peaceful co-existence amongst all the tribes.
It will be recalled that sometime last year, some people were arrested by the Kano State Police Command for allegedly kidnapping seven teenagers from Bauchi and Kano states and selling them to people in the South-East and Lagos for prices ranging from N400,000 to N500,000.
The 11 suspects arrested were subsequently paraded by police.
Meanwhile, the affected children have been reunited with their parents, who were mostly from Bauchi State.
In light of the development, the ACF called a meeting of all stakeholders on Saturday in Kano to proffer solution to the development.
At the meeting, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, who was represented by Seriki Shanu, Alhaji Mohammed Shehu, condemned the development and called for a lasting solution to the ugly act.
Also speaking at the event, ACF chairman, Dr Goni Faruk Umar, called on those who engage in the inhumane treatment of innocent children to stop immediately.
He also called on the Nigerian government, traditional institutions, security agencies, community leaders, judiciary and legislature to put all hands on deck to arrest the situation once and for all.
According to him, “we called for this stakeholders’ meeting to show our concern with the way children are abducted and sold in the state.
Some were sold by their parents; some were sold by doctors in the hospital after delivery, as confirmed to us by the police commissioner when we visited him.
“We visited the police commissioner and thanked him when he rescued eight children recently.
“The children are from Bau-chi. They bring them to Kano, collaborate with people who give them a certificate of birth, backdate it and then sell the children.
“One of them who bought a child at N480,000 was arrested and the police commissioner told us that she said she bought the child because in the Igbo culture if you don’t have a male child, you will not inherit your hus-band.
“That was the purpose and similar to others, not that they are using the child for rituals.
“We are concerned with the situation. That is why we called the Igbo leaders and other stakeholders to this conference. There is also the issue of drug abuse associated with Sabon Gari.
We are not just getting them to condemn the situation, but to also work with them in fighting the menace.” The representative of the Igbo community, Chief Uwaimo Ifeanyi, who represented Igwe Igbo of Kano, Igwe Boniface Ibekwe, condemned the act and called for due punishment for the perpetrators.
“We received with shock and disbelief the abduction of children that were recovered by the police in Kano. We condemn this criminal act in it’s entirety,” he said.
Other ethnic leaders present at the meeting including the Sarkin Edo of Kano, Fred Akhigbe; the leader of Igala community, Abubakar Ibochi and the Yoruba leader in Kano, Yunus Salahuddeen Olanrewaju who represented the Oba of Yoruba, Alhaji Murtala Alimi Ot-isese, all condemned the act and dissociated themselves from it while promising to guide their communities against it.
. TheWitness
