Some of the 300 children found chained in an Islamic School building in Kaduna State were sodomised, the police authorities said.
Nigerian police rescued more than 300 people, mostly children, bearing metal chains around their ankles on Friday.
“The victims were abused. Some of them said they were sodomised by their teachers,” Kaduna State police spokesman Yakubu Sabo told AFP.
Sabo added that victims including adults and minors were kept in “the most debasing and inhuman conditions in the name of teaching them the Koran and reforming them.”
“We found around 100 students including children as young as nine, in chains stuffed in a small room all in the name of reforming them and making them responsible persons,” Sabo said.
Islamic School, also known as the ‘Almajiri’ is a Quranic education system in Northern Nigeria. It is popularly associated with kids begging on the streets in many Northern Nigerian states. Many of these kids are sent by their parents to live with and study Quranic education at a teacher’s place.
The Nigerian Government recently faulted the system, said it is planning to ban it.
The police raided the Islamic school building in the Rigasa area city on Thursday. The police authorities said the school has been operating for a decade, enrolled students brought by their families to learn the Koran and be rehabilitated from drug abuse and other illnesses.
The proprietor of the school and six staff were arrested during the raid. Many of the rescued students bore scars on their backs and serious injuries, police said.
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