Bauchi Governor, Bala Mohammed has chided parents for negligently handling the upbringing and welfare of their children leading to abduction and trafficking across the country.
The Governor emphasised that the issue of abduction and trafficking of children is not a religious issue but rather criminality perpetrated by criminals who should be kept out of circulation behind the bars.
Bala Mohammed was speaking on Wednesday at the EXCO Chambers of the Government House while officially receiving 7 rescued abducted and trafficked children in Bauchi.
“We have to tell the parents that this is inaccessible, parents must take responsibility, you must be able to do that in a manner that is purely good and acceptable in the society.”
The Governor added that if parents don’t take care of their children, nobody will do that thereby exposing the children to criminals in the society who are waiting for such opportunities to prey on the innocent children.
He stressed that, “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 not play your parental roles well, that was the reason the children were abducted and trafficked. I am not happy with you. You don’t deserve anything other than reprimand.
“I will direct all the Mai Unguwa of where you are living to put eyes on you and report to me about you. Though you told me that you reported the incidents but sometimes due to poverty, you may not know how to properly report such.”
The State Committee on GBV was mandated to ensure judicious utilization of the money, saying, “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 called on the security agents to brace up in order to face the challenge and nip it in the bud before it escalated saying, “this is worse than banditry, we must stop it now.”
He lamented that, “The act of trafficking is a mutilation of a person’s genealogy, somebody’s history, 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.
“We must be able to establish that they are well taken care of, my wife and I will make sure that we visited the parents, they must take responsibility and these children must be entitled to have a good life. If the parents cannot do it, they should confess it now so that we can take them to BASOVCA, we can keep them there but you know that blood is ticker than water, they will not want them there.”
The Governor called on religious leaders to as a matter of urgency, use their religious centers to preach on the responsibilities of parents in the upbringing of their children.
He directed CAN, JNI and other religious bodies to rise up to the occasion by using their Pulpits to educate parents on the importance of good parenting.
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 stressed that so far, the suspects have confessed to the crime but said that more investigations are ongoing in order to get to the root cause of the issue.
According to him, “It is a cartel, a syndicate whose chain of operations must be broken in order to minimize their activities in the state.
He however called for support from the government to enable his operatives move across the country in order to get all those linked in one way or the other to the syndicate.
The Governor officially received the children and handed over to their parents directing the government agencies responsible for child welfare to ensure that the children are doing fine.
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