Controversy has continued to trail the circumstances in which refugees from the sectarian crisis in plateau state had found themselves. Rumours abound that children from the crisis area are being smuggled into neighbouring states and sold for various sums of money.
However, the Kaduna state Police Command have refuted the rumour, saying that no children from Jos were smuggled into Kaduna state and sold to ‘interested buyers’ at N4,000 each. The children were rumoured to be between the ages of four and six.
Similarly, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the umbrella body of christian churches have debunked the foreign media report that ‘some pastors were found trafficking and selling some captured Muslim children’ at Gwantu, a border town near Plateau state.
CAN said the affected children are Christians and not from Plateau state and that they were brought with the full consent of their parents.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Aminu Lawal, said in an interview that the children were neither muslims nor from Plateau State as being speculated.
“We have done our findings and investigations, these children are neither Muslims nor from Jos but from Bassa in Kogi state. We were made to understand that they are all Christians and that the church there had an arrangement of coming to the aid of poor parents and orphans by being responsible for their education and upkeeps.
“The pastors and other people involved were with us. We have seen the children and we are certain of what we are saying. It is absolutely contrary to what was aired in the media. I can also tell you that the person who raised the alarm had apologised to the Commissioner of Police, that he made a mistake by not doing a proper investigation before going to the media. Kaduna is calm and peaceful and we are appealing to the public to always ignore those with the habit of inciting the public and disrupting the peace in the state.”
CAN secretary, Reverend John Joseph Hayab, said, “the issue is that some mischief-makers are at it again. they are trying to create tension and possibly a religious crisis in Kaduna state by spreading a story that is not true.
“ One Bala Waziri went to incite people through one of the foreign media that he found some of our pastors in Gwantu, Sanga local government area of Kaduna state, engaging in child or human trafficking and selling children for four thousand naira.
“These children are not those captured from Jos, their parents are alive to confirm our statement that they have been here before the Jos crisis. All is an attempt to cause confusion in Kaduna.”
He said the church went to some communities in the North and picked up children because of their parents’ inability to sponsor their education, and this they having been doing because of the importance they attach to education.
“ This is a reality because many of the children’s parents cannot afford their education, their parents are alive to cofirm that these children were released to the church with their consent. but in order to create mischief, it was twisted and linked with the Jos crisis in Plateau state.
“This clearly shows how people are causing tension in our country for selfish interests . The government must act by investigating the matter. Who knows if he (the man spreading the rumour) was not part of the people sending inciting SMS in Kaduna. if you read the messages sent to some media outfits, you will understand what we are saying,” he said.