Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State government has marked for demolition, the alleged torture centre in Ibadan, the state capital, where 259 inmates were rescued by the police on Monday.
Besides, 22 among the rescued inmates have been hospitalised because they were critically ill as a result of alleged in human treatment they experienced at the centre and infections they contracted.
Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, disclosed this on Tuesday in an interview with journalists when he visited the purported detention facility at Olore Bus Stop, Ojoo end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. He also spoke on the hospitalisation of the 22 rescued inmates when he addressed their parents at the temporary rehabilitation centre, provided by Oyo State government for the inmates at the permanent site of Oyo State Transport Management Agency (OYTMA), Sanyo, Ibadan.
The police in the state had on Monday busted a place known as Olore, at Ojoo end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in an operation led by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Shina Olukolu. The operation also led to the arrest of five persons, including one of the operators of the centre, identified as Ismail Olore.
Already, the Bureau of Physical Planning and Development Control in the state has sealed the purported torture centre, where some inmates alleged that their parents usually paid N150,000 for them to be admitted into the place on the grounds of rehabilitating them against drugs addiction, mental issues and other misbehaviours.
In the same vein, the Oyo State Government Physical Development Control Department has also given demolition notice to the owners of the facility.
Parents of many of the inmates have also stormed the government’s temporary rehabilitation centre to appeal government to release their children to them. Some of them, however, told the governor that they willingly took their children to the centre for because of their alleged misbehaviours, adding that they did not know the condition of the children or how they were fed and accommodated.
Makinde said: “We have marked the facility for demolition. We have here Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning. We also have Ministry of Justice here. We have the Ministry of Health here. The government will do everything that is humanly possible to ensure that this kind of thing is stopped in our environment.
“We want to encourage our people, the parents, even family members, if you need to rehabilitate members of your family that are not behaving well, we have government institutions that can do that. And we are trying to rehabilitate those places. They are for the people of Oyo State.
“So, whatever is necessary, looking at the laws of our land, regarding this kind of thing, we will ensure we get this place away from those people doing this type of thing, within the ambit of the law. Also, you have the law enforcement agencies, and those involved, they are going to be prosecuted to the full extent of our law.”
Speaking on the plans of the government for the rescued inmates, Makinde stated that the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare has been mobilised to take care of them, saying: “First, we need to have immediate palliatives for them. Then, we have to look at deeper issues on how to resettle them, how to re-unite them with their families. We are not going to leave them alone at this point.”
The governor also explained that the 22 of the hospitalised inmates were receiving treatment at Adeoyo Hospital, off Ring Road, Ibadan, saying they would be released to their parents once the doctors discharged them. He also added that those that were at the temporary rehabilitation centre would also be released to the parents, once they were given a clean bill of health.
The governor, however, enjoined the parents and guardians that they should join hands with the government in correcting the social ills in the society, adding: “If you have children that are misbehaving, the government is here to correct and we have correctional facilities where the rehabilitation can be done.”