The Katsina State Government, on Tuesday, welcomed 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.
During the reception, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. Hadiza Yar’adua, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to collaborating with UNICEF, NAPTIP, and other agencies to address the issue of out-of-school children in the state.
She also pledged to develop alternative care policies and programs for street children, ensuring these initiatives align with the culture, traditions, and religious values of the community.
Yar’adua revealed that prior to the incident, Rahama had been living in Kano State for seven years under the care of her late mother’s sister. She emphasized the importance of parental responsibility in child upbringing and discouraged reliance on relatives for such critical duties.
“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 deterant.
“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.