Gov. El-Rufa’i of Kaduna State
The Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development in the state, Hafsat Baba, said of the figure, 140 have been re-united with their families.
Baba who gave the update on the incident on Sunday, said that the remaining victims including 77 children and 113 adults were taken to a secure facility at the Mando Hajj Camp in the state capital.
She noted that the motive is for proper profiling before uniting them with their families upon proper identification.
“They were rescued and brought to Ranchers Bees Stadium and then they stayed there overnight. We provided food for them”.
“On Friday, they were relocated to this facility, the Hajj Camp. And that was when we did the head count to find out and separate the children from the adults. Even though some of them ran away because of the freedom they got, we were able to 190 on ground”.
“77 of them are children, the youngest being the age of six. There are some that are 7, 8, 9 and 10. We also have adults as old as 30 and even up to 50. We have 113 adults as at that time (Friday),” she said.
Speaking further, the Commissioner explained that upon the handing over of the victims by the Police Command in the state, Governor Nasiru El-Rufai ordered the ministry to provide succour for them.
On their welfare, she explained: “On that same Friday, there were about 15 children that were really sick. We had to take them to the hospital. About three of the adults were on admission where they are being taken care of.”
She also commended officials of the Nigeria Police, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and media practitioners for the various roles they played in the exercise.
Her comments come two days after the victims were rescued following a raid at a home allegedly used as an Islamic Centre.
The police had earlier explained that the victims who come from Burkina Faso, Mali and other African countries were subjected to daily recitation of the Holy Quran and prayers, allegedly accompanied by torture with claims that some of the children were sexually abused.
