Emir of Kano raises alarm on child trafficking, vows to crack down on ‘ugly trend’

The Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, on Saturday, broke his silence on the disturbing rise of child kidnapping and trafficking from the northern part of Nigeria, calling it an “ugly trend” that must be stopped immediately.

His condemnation comes after the Kano State Police Command successfully dismantled a human trafficking syndicate on December 27th, arresting nine suspects and rescuing seven children, primarily from neighboring Bauchi State.

“We have to rise against it,” the Emir declared through his representative, Ahmad Umar, Dan Malikin Kano, addressing journalists on Saturday. “We will no longer condone a situation whereby our children are kidnapped, sold, and their tribe and religion are changed.”

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“This ugly trend must stop. We have to rise up against it. We will no longer condone a situation whereby our children are kidnapped, sold and their tribe and religion were changed.

“This illicit act must stop. We have to rise up to check the situation as it is going out of hand. The situation cannot stop itself. It is we that will make it stop. It happened few years ago and now it has happened again. Only God knows how many of our children have been kidnapped and sold.”

Describing the situation as disturbing, the emir called for the punishment of the perpetrators to serve as a lesson to others.

He said Kano has been accommodating visitors for hundreds of years, and that the visitors should not take the advantage of the hospitality to commit crimes.

“Kano, for hundreds of years, has been welcoming visitors and taken them as its sons. Recently we have seen a disturbing and unfortunate incident of rescuing children trafficked to Lagos through Kano,” he said.

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