Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has donated the sum of one million Naira each for the upkeep to the families of seven children who were stolen and trafficked out of the state by unscrupulous persons.
The governor, while receiving the recovered children at the Government House, Bauchi on Wednesday, chided parents for not taking proper care of their children, a trend he said had contributed to abduction and trafficking across the country.
Governor Bala, who handed over the rescued children to their parents, said the menace of abduction and trafficking of children is not a religious issue but rather criminality perpetrated by those who should be jailed.
He described the incident as worse than banditry, which must be stopped by all possible means, lamenting that the act of trafficking is a mutilation of a person’s genealogy and stressed the need for religious leaders to as a matter of urgency, use their religious centres to preach on the responsibilities of parents in the upbringing of their children.
“We have to tell the parents that this is unacceptable, they must take responsibility; you must be able to do that in a manner that is purely good and acceptable in the society.
“I heard that the Kano state government gave you incentives, I will not do that because you don’t deserve any such. You did not play your parental roles well, that was the reason the children were abducted and trafficked”, the governor said.
“I am not happy with you. You don’t deserve anything other than reprimand. Everything possible must be done to ensure that the money did not get to the parents, especially the fathers so that they will not use it to marry more wives and give birth to children they cannot take care of.
“But for the sake of the innocent children, I am directing that a dedicated bank account be opened in their names with the sum of N1m each for their upkeep”, he added.
The governor then mandated the State Committee on Gender-based Violence (GBV) to ensure judicious utilization of the money and called on the security agents to brace up in order to face the challenge and nip it in the bud before it escalated.
“This is a serious crime that must not go unpunished. I will make sure that the Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development collated every information about the children in order to effectively monitor their growth and career progression”, he said.
Earlier, the State Police Commissioner, Auwal Musa Mohammed narrated that his Command collaborated with the Kano State Command in ensuring that the children were rescued and reunited with their parents.
The commissioner, who informed that so far, the suspects have confessed to the crime, said more investigations are ongoing in order to get to the root cause of the issue.