Bauchi Governor donates N7m to families of 7 rescued children for upkeep

Samuel Luka, Bauchi

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has donated the sum of one million Naira each, for upkeep to the families of seven children who were stolen and trafficked out of the state by some unscrupulous persons.

The Governor while receiving the families of the recovered children at the government house on Wednesday chided parents for not taking proper care of their children, a trend he said has contributed to abduction and trafficking across the country.

Bala who handed over the rescued children to their parents, said that the menace of abduction and trafficking of children is not a religious issues but rather criminality perpetrated by criminals who should be jailed.

“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.” He said.

Bala Mohammed further noted that, failure of parents to take care of their children is something that can not be addressed by other people rather than themselves.

“Nobody will do that for them, thereby exposing the children to criminals in the society who are waiting for such opportunities to prey on the innocent children”, the Governor pointed out.

“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 angrily said.

“I am not happy with you. You don’t deserve anything other than reprimand.” He said.

Governor Mohammed directed all the traditional leaders where parents of the stolen children resides to put eyes on them and report back to him on how well they have improved in taking responsibility of the children.

The Governor mandated the State Committee on Gender-based Violence (GBV) to ensure judicious utilization of the money.

“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”, the Governor directed.

“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 said.

The Governor called on the security agents to brace up in order to face the challenge and nip it in the bud before it escalated.

Bala Mohammed who described the incident as worst than banditry which must be stopped by all possible means, lamented that the act of trafficking is a mutilation of a person’s genealogy.

“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.

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.

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.

“It is a cartel, a syndicate which 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.