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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State Government has marked for demolition, a torture centre in Ibadan, where 259 inmates were rescued by the police on Monday.
Besides, 22 among the rescued inmates have been hospitalised due to alleged inhuman treatment and infections.
Governor Seyi Makinde, disclosed this, yesterday in an interview with journalists when he visited the detention facility at Olore Bus Stop, Ojoo end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
He also spoke on the hospitalised 22 inmates when he addressed their parents at the temporary rehabilitation centre at the State Transport Management Agency (OYTMA) site in Sango, Ibadan.
Makinde said: “We have marked the facility for demolition. We have here Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning. We also have Ministry of Justice here. We have the Ministry of Health here. The government will do everything that is humanly possible to ensure this kind of thing is stopped in our environment.
“We want to encourage our people, the parents, even family members, if you need to rehabilitate members of your family, we have government institutions that can do that. And we are trying to rehabilitate those places. They are for the people of Oyo State.”
Makinde said the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare has been mobilised to take care of the rescued victims, saying: “We need to have immediate palliatives for them. Then, we have to look at deeper issues on how to resettle them, how to re-unite them with their families. We are not going to leave them alone at this point.”
The governor also explained that the 22 hospitalised inmates were receiving treatment at Adeoyo Hospital, saying they would be released to their parents once the doctors discharge them. He also added that those that are at the temporary rehabilitation centre would also be released to their parents, once they are given clean bill of health.
The governor, however, enjoined parents and guardians to join hands with the government in correcting social ills in the society, adding: “If you have children that are misbehaving, the government is there to correct and we have correctional facilities where the rehabilitation can be done.”
The police had, on Monday, busted a place known as Olore, at Ojoo end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in an operation, led by Commissioner of Police, Shina Olukolu.
The operation also led to the arrest of five persons, including one of the operators of the centre, identified as Ismail Olore.
Already, the Bureau of Physical Planning and Development Control has sealed the torture centre, where some inmates alleged that their parents usually paid N150,000 for them to be admitted for drugs addiction, mental issues and other misbehaviours.
In the same vein, the state Physical Development Control Department has given demolition notice to the owners of the facility.
Parents of the inmates have also stormed the government’s temporary rehabilitation centre to demand release of their children .
Some of them, however, told the governor that they willingly took their children to the centre for misbehaviours, adding that they did not know the condition of the children on how they were fed and accommodated.
