No fewer than 300 persons were reportedly set free after the police raided an Islamic centre at Rigasa, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The victims, who according to the police, are from Burkina Faso, Mali and other African countries, were subjected to inhuman treatment.<\/p>\n
While the children among them were said to have been sexually abused, others were tortured on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
The police stormed the house on Thursday night after being tipped off.<\/p>\n
Bello Hamza, one of the victims, told journalists that he was tricked to the centre by his family members.<\/p>\n
Hamza, who lamented that he spent three months in chains, said he was supposed to be pursuing a master\u2019s degree at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got admission to study Applied Mathematics, but here I am chained. They claim to be teaching us Quran and Islam but they do a lot of things here. They subject the younger ones to homosexuality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is supposed to be an Islamic centre, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling for that, but engaging in homosexuality attracts no punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin my short stay here, somebody had died as a result of torture. Others have died before my coming due to poor health and torture. They give us very poor food and we only eat twice a day; 11:00am and 10:00pm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have denied me a lot of things here. I am a family man, I have responsibilities, but I am chained here not knowing what is happening to my family members.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briefing reporters after the rescuing the victims, Ali Janga, Kaduna police commissioner, said: \u201cWe received an information that something is going on in this rehabilitation centre or Islamic center. So, I sent my DPO here to check what was going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn getting here, we discovered that, this is neither a rehabilitation centre or Islamic school. You can see it yourself that, small children, some of whom are brought from neighbouring African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and others and from across Nigeria. Most of them are even chained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people are being used, dehumanized. You can see it yourself. The man who is operating this home claimed that, parents brought their children here for rehabilitation. But, from the look on things this is not a rehabilitation centre. No reasonable parent will bring his children to this place.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we are going to investigate them and get to the root of the matter. We will find out the real motive behind this centre, and if they are found wanting they will be charged to court. But first, we are evacuating all the people from this place to our station and we will make announcement for parents to come and recover their children.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the proprietor of the centre, simply known as \u201cMallam\u201d insisted that all they do at the centre is to teach people Islam.<\/p>\n
He denied allegations of torture and homosexuality at the centre. \u201cAll those allegations of torture, dehumanisation and homosexuality are false. We do nothing here other than teaching people Islam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t do anything other than, recitation of Qur\u2019an, pray and worship God. Those chained are the stubborn ones who attempted to run away. Those who don\u2019t attempt running away are not chained. Some were chained before and after settling down, they were freed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them were brought by their parents from across the country and others from outside the countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No fewer than 300 persons were reportedly set free after the police raided an Islamic centre at Rigasa, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis on Thursday night. The victims, who according to the police, are from Burkina Faso, Mali and other African countries, were subjected to inhuman treatment. While the children among them were said to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":109851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,15,2],"tags":[43011,51097,36,51096],"yoast_head":"\n