Hafsat Baba, the Kaduna State commissioner for human services and social development, on Sunday, October 20, 2019, said some of the inmates rescued at the Niga Rehabilitation and Skill Acquisition Centre, Rigasa in Igabi Local Government Area of the state were chained for eight years.
The Punch reports that the state Governor Nasir El-Rufai led some policemen to raid the centre on Saturday where they rescued 147 women, men as well as children.
The inmates comprised of 125 males and 22 females among them four foreigners from Cameroon and Niger Republic.
On Sunday, the commissioner said the state had commenced the process of reuniting the inmates with their families
According to the commissioner, some of the inmates have been in chains for eight years; adding that they removed the chains on Sunday.
“They have been under torture; all in chains. We have to call a welder to remove the chains in their legs. Some of them have been in chains for eight years. They just removed the chains this afternoon,” she said.
According to her, the medical team tested the inmates for HIV; while they took those with mental issues to the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital in Barnawa, Kaduna.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission ordered investigations into the activities of illegal detention centres recently; instructed the security agencies to uncover the established cases of violation of human rights for possible prosecution.
Tony Ojukwu, the executive secretary of the NHRC, directed the commission’s State Coordinators in the North-West; to unravel the circumstances surrounding the illegal detention centres and the children abducted in Kano.
Ojukwu, in a statement by the director corporate affairs and external linkages, Lambert Oparah, said, “This will enable the commission to ascertain the various aspects of human rights violations; perpetrated by the operators of the so-called educational and rehabilitation centres preparatory to ensuring their prosecution and punishment in line with the law.”
