Following the reported rescue of 400 men and boys in a building in Kaduna, where the
detainees were allegedly abused and tortured, the Presidency has issued a statement condemning child abuse. Below is the text of the statement signed by Garba Shehu, the President's Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity :
‘‘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.
‘‘He added that “Section 2 of the Compulsory Free Universal
Basic Education Act provides that every government in Nigeria shall provide
free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and
junior secondary school age.
“It is indeed a crime, he stressed, for any parent to keep
his child out of school for this period.
‘‘While the government at the center has introduced a number
of programmes, including the school feeding programme which is now in 32
states in the country, with 9.8 million children in its roll to encourage
school enrollment and enhance the health and learning capabilities of pupils,
State and local governments are obliged under the law to ensure that every
child of school age goes to school throughout the crucial nine years of basic
education.
‘‘To stop unwanted cultural practices that amount to the
abuse of children, our religious and traditional authorities must work with the
federal, state and local governments to expose and stop all types of abuse that
are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities.’’
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