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Christopher Oji
The Kano State Government on Wednesday shut down a notorious children torture chamber and rescued 36 chained inmates from the facility.
Daiba, located in Rijiyar Lemu quarters in Dala Local Government Area of the state, was shut down late Wednesday after state officials found children in chains at the centre.
There have been reports that proprietors of other such centres in Kano were shutting them down and dismissing the students to escape the attention of the authorities.
The state government had set up a committee to check the centres operating in the state with a view to regulating their activities.
The head of the committee, Muhammad Tahar, told Freedom Radio that the Daiba centre was notorious for chaining and torturing its inmates. He said the committee stormed the centre with the support of the Hisbah (state’s moral police) and found some inmates being tortured.
He advised parents to come forward and identify their children who were rescued from the centre and taken into the custody of Hisbah.
Kano State police public relations officer, Abdullahi Haruna, said he was unaware of the operation.
President Muhammadu Buhari had condemned the ill-treatment of children at the centres.
“On torture chambers, in this day and age, no responsible democratic government would tolerate the existence of torture chambers and physical abuses of inmates in the name of rehabilitation of the victims.”
The president commended the efforts of the police in exposing human rights abuses by individuals and criminal groups and said he was optimistic that the efforts would be sustained to check illegal activities of such nature.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command has rescued 15 persons chained in a Prayer House at the Isheri Osun area of the State .
The Prophet in charge of the prayer house and 10 others workers have been arrested in connection with the torture camp .
Lagos State police public relations officer DSP Bala Elkana, said: “At about 1810hrs, acting on information from a reliable source, a team of detectives from Isheri Osun police Station led by the divisional police officer, CSP Chike Ibe, stormed a prayer house used as detention camp at No 26, Alafia Street, Oriofe Ijegun Isheri, where the prophet in charge, Sunday Joseph Ojo, 58, and 10 others were arrested. Fifteen persons who were chained by their legs were rescued. Some of the victims were said to have spent five years in the detention camp.
“The male and female victims are between ages 19 and 50. The prophet claimed that some of the victims were brought by their families to seek spiritual help on mental illness and other diseases.
“The prophet said he has been in the healing ministry since 1986, that he chained the victims in order to prevent them from escaping from the home.
“Investigation is ongoing. The police are working closely with other agencies of the government to provide adequate medical attention and shelter to the victims”
