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POLICE IN THE northern Nigerian city of Kaduna have rescued more than 300 male students being held at an Islamic school where many had been tortured and sexually abused, a police spokesman said.
Officers raided a building in the Rigasa area of the city on Thursday where the victims including adults and minors were kept in “the most debasing and inhumane conditions in the name of teaching them the Koran and reforming them”, Kaduna state police spokesman Yakubu Sabo told AFP.
“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.
The school which 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, police said.
The proprietor of the school and six staff were arrested during the raid.
Victims at the facility were found padlocked to car hubcaps and had their hands and feet chained. Others bore scars down their backs.
“The victims were abused. Some of them said they were sodomised by their teachers,” Sabo stated.
Police had been tipped off by complaints from local residents who became suspicious of what was happening inside the school.
During the raid on the school, police said they found a “torture chamber” where students were chained, hung and beaten.
Local police chief Ali Janga said that despite its claims to be an educational institution, the conditions proved that the facility was “neither a rehab [centre] or an Islamic school”.
Those held there “were used, dehumanised, you can see it yourself”, Janga said.
Private Islamic schools are common in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, where government services are often lacking.
‘Severe punishment’
One inmate quoted by Nigerian media described horrific conditions and treatment at the facility.
“I have spent three months here with chains on my legs,” 42-year-old Bello Hamza said, adding that he was meant to be in South Africa studying for his Masters degree.
This is supposed to be an Islamic centre, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling for that.
Another victim Hassan Yusuf told AFP that he had been sent to the centre two years ago because he had converted to Christianity.
“They keep you incommunicado, you can’t talk to anybody,” the married father said.
Television footage showed emaciated children being loaded into minivans and driven away for processing.
Police said the victims were of varying nationalities and that some had been brought from countries in the region including Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana.
The victims were taken to a camp on the outskirts of Kaduna where their identities were being documented to determine where they came from and to contact their families.
Parents of some of the victims from within the city, contacted by police were “shocked and horrified” when they saw the condition of their children, as they had no idea what was happening inside the school.
Parents were allowed to visit their children every three months, but only in select areas of the premises.
“They were not allowed into the house to see what was happening… the children are only brought to them outside to meet them,” Sabo said.
“All they thought was their children are being taught the Koran and good manners as they looked subdued,” he added.
One of the men allegedly running the facility insisted to local television channels that the centre was simply teaching Islamic studies and that those chained up were “the stubborn ones who attempt to run away”.
Everyone keeps saying “ohhh what if they get a missile that can reach California”…what if they do? Chinese missiles can reach anywhere in the US, Russian missiles can reach anywhere in the US, but they don’t fire them for the same reason NK won’t, because even if they got every single US air force missile base on the ground in a surprise first strike the US could just retaliate with B2′s, B-52s and Trident Subs and turn NK into a sheet of glass.
When you read up on NK and it’s geopolitics you discover they have this tendency to throw a tantrum or get aggressive when they want aid. They need aid because, contrary to what Richard Boyd Barret and Mr “im pretending to be working class even though I went to a fee paying school and earn a 6 figure income” Paul Murphy say, central economic planning and direct allocation are disasters. So why give them the money I used to wonder, why give into their tantrums, everyone is afraid if the aids totally cut off NK will collapse, nobody wants that.
China does not want it because it = floods of refugees, SK does not want it for same reason. The US does not want it because it means some nukes will go missing that might not be seen again until some NK general makes a fortune selling them to a Saudi prince that gives them to ISIS and next time they’re seen it’s a bright flash in DC or NY or London. They’re not gonna actually fire those missiles, they play insane but they’re not actually insane.
@Ryan Carroll:Makes sense and nice to read an informed comment rather than just making noise for the sake of making a comment but not actually having anything to add to the debate
@Ryan Carroll: fair post, but you refer to NK as “they” isn’t it really just one guy. If he has a melt down on any given day then everyone else does what he says, even though it may mean armageddon
Basically. Whatever your politics, you’d be stupid to believe that the North Korean administration is completely irrational – they don’t want a nuclear war any more than anyone else. But they’ve been living with the threat of an American-backed invasion for 60-odd years, so they’ve made a bit of military grandstanding a central part of their foreign policy. You might argue it’s not the best strategy for bringing the Korean conflict to a permanent resolution but it seems to be keeping them on the map so far.
@Neville Bartos: they might have a hereditary head of state but it’s hard to know how much of an autocrat KJU really is. I suspect he’d have a difficult time declaring war without the support of his generals, for instance.
@Ryan Carroll: To address what you said about giving NK aid, the reason it’s kept going is because the UN don’t want another Korean famine like we saw in the 90s when millions died. That’s why UN food aid will keep coming despite their military aggression.
In fact, the NK regime has been using nuclear tests as a weapon of blackmail in order to force the UN into giving them aid. As you mention, their economy is a shambles, so the only way everyone in the country doesn’t starve is if they threaten and loudmouth their way to humanitarian aid.
@Ryan Carroll: tbh I clicked on thinking this was another story about Bray Wanderers
@Ryan Carroll: what are you basing this input on? How do you know NK won’t launch? You can’t compare China to NK.
Sigh. Not very Christian.
@Ryan Carroll: the US probably does want this because a fall of NK means the US are right on the Chinese border destabilising the whole region the same way it’s doing in the Middle East
@Jesus Christ: Hey man, thanks for saving Microsoft Paint. I’ve started the ministry like I promised, mostly just preaching to the junkies outside the office. I have a sweet dog collar and shirt ordered, when it comes I’ll step things up a notch and start a weekly mass.
If there is one thing we’ve learned over the years is north Korea could not give a fiddlers about sanctions.
How many missiles have the USA n others not jus tested bit dropped on other countries?? The US are the only country to use nuclear weapons on civilian targets…North korea have never been involved in a war since the korean war…the US used chemical weapons in Vietnam…the US n UK have illegally invaded and destroyed countries all over the world for years…there is more to fear from so called western countries than anything else in this world…
@Robbie Moles: don’t forget the fact that the US killed 20% of the North Korean population only a few decades ago in a civilian targeted bombing campaign by flattening every settlement area bigger than a small village. And yet you still get idiots that think the North Koreans hate the west because of propaganda.
Tick-Tock Tick-Tock
@Nick Allen: it’s looking ominous something is going too break out any day
@ColmD:
Yes, you would expect something to happen alright. Kim is a nut job and so is the Don which makes it very worrying.
I think it’s very clear that North Korea doesn’t care about any sanctions, I’m sure the orange man on twitter will inform us on the next plan of action.
Every action has a reaction , go Korea duck the sanctions
They can use they’re midsole defence systems if they did fire one rather than risk a full scale war pm the strength of a potential attack , wmd in Iraq comes to mind . I’d say they will have the battle do , it’ll be the new Vietnam , Iraq , Syria
Crazy A$$ Mother our Kim Jong. Sticking two fingers up in the face of war. Pushing the the buttons literally and preverbally..
@The Viking: Why do the US and Japan, and anyone else think for one moment that Kim, takes any notice of them he is laughing at them sanctions mean nothing to him he is going to do what he wants, enough talking done go in and destroy him and his torturous regime or else STFU.
And they did this 20 seconds after Peter Cherrie got sent off??? Coincident??? I think not.
Poor fish (again) one day they will rise up against kim
Ah its all fake anyhow
POT…. KETTLE…. BLACK…… I wish them all the best with their Nuclear programme. I dont agree with how he treats his people, but maybe being taken seriously as a super power may advance their economy and be beneficial to improving korean society as a whole. He seems to be the only head of state with a set of big shiny balls. Maybe a lot more world leaders could follow his model and not be bullied by US and EU warlords.
Fire missiles will eventually break the country ie just like water meters here it’s fruit less task
It’s a perfect storm and when China’s leaders are seen as the most sensible,then the rest of us should worry
Nobody else can put pressure on the North Korean leadership.they are beyond the Pale.
These people need to be taken down a few pegs. It’s not acceptable what there at
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