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. Hassan Yar’adua reiterated his commitment to working with UNICEF, NAPTIP, and other organizations to combat the issue of state-wide absentee students.
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.
The victim had spent seven years with the deceased mother’s sister before the incident, according to Yar’adua, highlighting the need for parents to care for their children and to stop overrelying on relatives to support their children’s education.
“I don’t want relatives to take care of our children, but I want parents to do more to take care of their kids,” I say.
” This is one of 1000 cases that we have been quickly able to tackle. There are a lot of kids who don’t have homes.
“We work closely with the governor, the justice system, and organizations like NAPTIP to address these issues,” the governor said. To protect the citizens, we have taken an oath.
” 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 anticipate that the suspect will receive severe punishment to deter.”
On February 16, the ministry received a distressing message from Katsina’s social media account, and we quickly arrived on Monday to find her parents. The father of the girl was reached out shortly after I called the NAPTIP commandant the same day.
“The father lost his wife, and the deceased wife’s relatives were kind enough to remove three of the four female children to lessen the strain of parenthood while Rahama was taken to Kano and later trafficked because her caregiver was careless.” And there was a fight 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.
She consistently tells me that Rahama is okay and that I shouldn’t worry myself even though I’ve been trying to talk to her on the phone before the incident but her caregiver was cooperating with me.
The woman insisted that the girl had been enrolled in school and that she had been declared missing after school hours, but I finally attempted to take her back home last month.
I’m grateful to the Women Affairs Ministry and the NAPTIP because I can’t even visit Kaduna and talk less about visiting Benue State to find my daughter now that she’s back.
Source: Channels TV
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