More than 300 shackled individuals most of them children believed to have been abducted by a religious instructor, have been rescued from a house in Rigasa, a town in Igabi local government area of Kaduna state in northern Nigeria.
The police in Kaduna State raided the house after a tip off and evacuated all those kidnapped who were mostly children from Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana and other African countries.
There was 43-year-old Hassan Yusuf, a PhD holder in Energy Economics among the abductees.
Local media reports on Friday said that the police unchained them and evacuated them from the site of their kidnapping in 15 commercial buses.
The house, “Daru Imam Ahmad Bun Hambal”, is said to be operated as an Islamic school where most of all the children were sexually abused.
The raid, according to the Nation newspaper, was led by the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ali Aji Janga, who confirmed that a majority of the ‘inmates’ were chained on both legs, and others shackled to generating sets and vehicle rims.
The report added that some of the inmates jubilated when the policemen arrived and they displayed scars from the injuries they sustained from alleged torture by their instructors.
Hassan said that he was dragged to the centre two years ago by his family after accusing him of trying to dump Islam.
“I have been here for two years. I just found myself here one morning two years ago. My extended family accused me of converting to Christianity, just because I spent 16 years in the UK and married to a Briton.
“For them, they think they are helping me because, since I became a Christian, I am supposed to die. But bringing me here according to them, is to de-radicalise me instead of death.
“Now, I am diabetic, I can’t access drugs and all the foods they give us here are carbohydrate,” he said.
Another inmate, Bello Hamza, 42, claimed that his family dragged him to the centre because they wanted to keep him away from taking over his share of his inheritance.
“I have spent three months here with chains on my legs. I’m supposed to be pursuing my Masters degree in the University of Pretoria, South Africa. I got admission to study Applied Mathematics, but here I am, chained.
“They claim to be teaching us Qur’an and Islam, but they do a lot of things here. They subject the younger ones to homosexuality.
“This is supposed to be an Islamic centre, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling for that, but engaging in homosexuality attracts no punishment,’’ he said.
But the proprietor of the Islamic centre, simply identified as Malam, denied all the allegations, saying that the centre was establish to teach Islam.
“All those allegations of torture, dehumanisation and homosexuality are false and mere allegations. We do nothing here other than teaching people Islam.
“They don’t do anything other than, recitation of Qur’an, pray and worship God. Those chained are the stubborn ones, who attempted to run away. Those who don’t attempt to run away are not chained. Some were chained before and after settling down, they were freed,’’ he said.
In a reaction, Jenga, the Commissioner of Police said: “We received information that something is going on in this rehabilitation centre or Islamic centre. So, I sent my DPO here to check what was going on. On getting here, we discovered that, this is neither a rehabilitation centre nor an Islamic school.
“You can see it for yourself that little children, some of who are brought from neighbouring African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and others and from across Nigeria. Most of them are even chained.
“These people are being used, dehumanised. You can see it for yourself. The man, who is operating this home, claimed that parents brought their children here for rehabilitation. But, from the look of things, this is not a rehabilitation centre. No reasonable parent will bring his children to this place.
“So, we are going to investigate them and get to the root of the matter. We will find out the real motive behind this centre, and if they are found wanting they will be charged to court,’’ he said.
MM/GIK/APA