HUMAN TRAFFICKING : IMMIGRATION RESCUE 21 CHILDREN IN KEBBI
FROM : AYODELE AJOGE, BIRNIN-KEBBI.
An Islamic Cleric who name wad given as Hsseini Sulieman Idris, a native of Bida, Niger Sate has been arrested by the Kebbi State Immigration Command on his way to Mauritania and Senegal Via Kebbi State border in company of 21 children.
The cleric was arrested at Kangiwa Border Post by the authorities of the Nigeria Immigration Service in Arewa Local Government Area of Kebbi State as he was about to move the children out of the country with fake ECOWAS passports.
While briefing journalists at the NIS command in Birnin Kebbi, the state comptroller Rabi Bashir Nuhu said upon interrogation, the cleric claimed he was taken the children to Senegal for Maulud celebration from where he planned to move them to Mauritania to seek Islamic knowledge.
Nuhu stated that through their investigation it was discovered that the ECOWAS passports with which the cleric was moving the 21 children out of the country was faked.
She explained that from what he told us we suspected the cleric was trafficking the children out of Nigeria, adding that the victims are minors particularly the two girls that are among the 19 boys.
"Though the cleric, claimed he was moving the children to Mauritania with the consent of their parents but we don't believe him. We know the children are being trafficked". She said.
Mrs Nuhu said further that "victims are minors and many of them are still in JSS in their various schools in Bauchi, Kano and Benin, Edo State. How come they are being moved out of the country to another country for Islamic knowledge where they have nobody, no relations". She queried.
"We are not against people going to other countries to seek Islamic knowledge but they must have relevant papers. In the case of these children all their ECOWAS passports are fake". She explained.
She therefore warned that the Nigeria Immigration Service will not tolerate moving of persons out of the country under any disguise seeking knowledge to traffic them, She warned parents against allowing their children to be moved out of the country to where they have no relations by people with interior motives.
In an interrogation by newsmen the cleric claimed he was moving the children to Senegal and Mauritania with the consent of their parents, adding that this was not the first time he had moved children to Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal to seek Islamic knowledge, I am not aware that the ECOWAS passports they issued to the children are fake.