KATSINA GOVT, NAPTIP RESCUE 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL FROM SUSPECTTED TRAFFICKER

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The Katsina State Government, on Tuesday, received Rahama Sanusi, a 13-year-old girl rescued from a suspected human trafficker by the State Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the State Ministry of Women Affairs.

While receiving Rahama, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. Hadiza Yar’adua, restated commitment to work in collaboration with UNICEF, NAPTIP and other agencies to tackle the menace of out of school children in the state.

She further promised to come up with alternative care, policy and program for children roaming on the streets taking into consideration, the culture, tradition and religion of the people.

Yar’adua explained that before the incident, the victim had been in Kano State for seven years under the care of her deceased mother’s sister, stressing the need for parents to take good care of their children and to stop over dependence on relatives for their children’s upbringing.

“I am not saying we should not allow relatives to take care of our children, but I call on parents to, despite the overwhelming situation of life, to do more in taking care of their children.

“This is one of 1000 cases that we have been quickly able to tackle. There are so many children out there that are out of homes.

“We take these issues very seriously with full support of the governor, the justice system and agencies like NAPTIP we are in collaboration with each other. We have taken an oath to protect the citizens.

“Moving forward, we will continue to collaborate with agencies like NAPTIP, Girl child department, ministry of justice to ensure that our children mostly underage are adequately protected. We will not relent.

“We hope that the suspect will be given a heavy punishment to serve as deterrent.

“The ministry got a distressing message on social media on February 16 that the girl was abducted from Katsina and we quickly on Monday commenced findings to meet her parents. I called the commandant of NAPTIP on the same day and within few hours, the father of the girl was reached out.

“The father lost his wife and relatives of the deceased wife were kind enough to take three of the female children out of the four to ease the burden of parenthood while Rahama was taken to Kano and finally trafficked due to negligence of her caregiver. And efforts were made to bring rahama back home.

“She was taken to Makurdi in Benue State where the suspect was seen with the girl”, Yar’adua explained.

In the meantime, Sanusi Ahmed, the father of the victim revealed that he has been making several attempts to bring back home his daughter, Rahama even before the incident but her caregiver was reluctant, declining his request.

He, therefore, called on parents not to relent in taking care of their children no matter how little they earn in their businesses.

“Even before the incident, I have been making several attempts to talk to Rahama on phone, but her caregiver was not cooperating with me, she always tells me that Rahama is okay and that I should not worry myself.

“I finally attempted to take her back home last month, but the woman insisted that the girl had been enrolled into school and that she was declared missing after school hours.

“Now that my daughter is back, I thank the Women Affairs Ministry and the NAPTIP because I can’t even go to Kaduna talk less of going to Benue State to find my daughter.

“I want to use this opportunity to call on parents not to relent in taking care of their children no matter how little they earn,” Ahmed stated.