Agaju Madugba, Katsina
The Katsina State Police Command has rescued a 16-years -old boy,Sadiku Umar, who was locked up in a cage for two years by his father, Salisu Umar, in Daura area of the State.
The rescue of Umar was facilitated by a non-governmental organisation, Save the Children International (SCI).
Reports indicated that the man put his son who is physically challenged in the cage when he was 14.
The victim was fed like a dog during the period until last week when SCI intervened and reported the matter to the police.
According to an SCI agent in Daura, Aminu Gambo, “the man told the police that he decided to put the boy in a cage because there was no longer space for him in the two-room apartment housing the entire family of 15 including his 12 other children.
“He was detained at the police station in Daura for a day and then moved to the police headquarters in Katsina and later released on the condition that he would no longer subject the boy to such inhuman treatment.
“SCI is working to see how it can accommodate Sadiku under its Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to make informed Choices for their Health (REACH) programme being implemented in Zamfara, Katsina and Gombe states.
During a field trip on Tuesday to select communities in Katsina State organised by SCI, the media also interacted with a cross section of girls who had abandoned school and were given out in marriage at tender age.
At the Government Girls Secondary School, Daura, one of them, Khadija Hassan, is currently writing the WASC examination and at 19 years she is in her second marriage. “I got married when I was 16 years old but my husband divorced me less than a year into the marriage and I was pregnant,” Khadija said.
Another girl, Aisha Basiru, 17, dropped out of school when she was in SS2 and got married.
Courtesy of SCI, the two girls, along with several others in parts of Katsina State, have returned to school under its REACH and Towards Ending Child Marriage (TECM) projects. According to SCI, “the TECM project is advocating the legal age of a child to be married to be defined as 18 years through the domestication and implementation of the Child Rights Act.”