Buhari orders police to raid illegal rehabilitation centres nationwide

President Muhammadu Buhari has told the Nigeria Police Force not
to relent in its efforts to bust all illegal correctional centres
in the country.

The President said his administration had zero tolerance for
criminality and human rights abuse such as the enslavement of
children in fake rehabilitation centres.

Buhari gave the order on Saturday just as the Kaduna State
Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, led operatives of the Kaduna State
Police Command to raid a torture home, known as the Mallam Niga
Rehabilitation Centre, at Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area of
the state.

At the centre, 147 captives – men, women and children – were
rescued. The detainees comprised of 125 males and 22 females, among
who four were foreigners from Cameroon and Niger republics. Most of
them were found in chains.

Confirming the raid, the Kaduna Police Command’s Public
Relations Officer, DSP Yakubu Sabo, said investigations would be
conducted, stating that the captives had been taken into protective
custody.

Sabo said, “The governor personally led the police to the
‘rehabilitation centre’ to find out what was happening. The centre
claimed that it was certified to rehabilitate and train people in
skills acquisition.

“The owner said the children were brought in by their parents to
undergo rehabilitation as a result of drug abuse and mental
illness. We will investigate and find out why the people were
chained.

“During the raid, some of the inmates made certain allegations
of maltreatment, including sexual molestation, particularly by the
female inmates.”

The raid on Saturday took place less than a month after about
300 male children and adults were rescued from a torture home at
the same area – Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna
State.

The incident, which took place on September 26, 2019, saw the
police arresting seven teachers of the centre, including its
proprietor, Mallam Ismaila Abubakar, who insisted he did nothing
wrong than teach the detainees Islam.

Some of the victims as young as five years old said they had
been held captive for years. They said they were tortured, sexually
abused and starved. Many of them, with visible injuries, had metal
chains around their ankles.

The police had said some of the inmates were from Burkina Faso,
Mali and other African countries, adding that the students
confessed to being abused homosexually, while some inmates said
they were subjected to the daily recitation of the Holy Quran and
prayers with torture.

One of those who were saved by the police alleged that some of
their fellow inmates had died.

Following the latest discovery of another torture home at
Rigasa, President Buhari commended the police for busting what he
described as fake correctional centres in Kaduna, as well as in
Katsina and Kano states.

He told the police not relent in their efforts to bust all
illegal correctional facilities across the country, describing them
as human rights abuses by individuals and criminal groups.

Buhari’s reaction was contained in a statement by his Special
Assistant (Media & Publicity), Mr Garba Shehu.

The statement partly read, “Reacting to the incidents and
arrests, President Buhari notes that such arrests are in line with
his commitment to human rights and dignity of the citizens,
regardless of their age, religion and ethnicity.

“President Buhari will not support criminality under any guise,
including the abduction of children and selling them off illegally.
On torture chambers, in this day and age, no responsible democratic
government would tolerate the existence of the torture chambers and
physical abuses of inmates in the name of rehabilitation of the
victims.

“The President, therefore, lauds the efforts of the police in
exposing these human rights abuses by individuals and criminal
groups and is optimistic that these efforts will be sustained to
check illegal activities of this nature.”

Buhari appealed to the citizens to remain vigilant and assist
the security agencies in crime prevention and control by reporting
criminal activities in their communities.