By Gift Chapi Odekina
The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 to enforce the inter-state travel ban order and direct the Governors concerned to immediately halt the evacuation of the Almajirai.
The House also urged the NCDC to counsel the Governors concerned on the threat posed by the evacuation of the children at this critical period.
The green chamber further urged the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to include the Almajiri children among the beneficiaries of palliatives being distributed by the Federal Government to the less privileged.
These resolutions followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Rep. Aishatu Dukku, Member, Representing Dukku/Nafada Federal Constituency, Gombe State and two other sponsors during plenary in Abuja.
Moving the motion, Rep. Dukku noted that about 10 million children attend the Almajiri Schools in Northern Nigeria with over 500,000 Almajirai living in the state of Kano alone, where majority of the children are being evacuated from
He worried that the evacuation of the Aimajirai was jeopardizing the fight against Covid-19 due to the high level of movement of the children from different places and its attendant high risk of infection;
He further expressed concerns that the evacuation of the children is against their fundamental human rights of residing anywhere in Nigeria as guaranteed in Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria;
She said “also concerned that the evacuation Of the children is in violation of the inter-state travel ban currently enforced by the government;
“Further worried that the nature and manner in which the children are being transported is dehumanizing and has brought them pain and untold hardships;
“Disturbed that in some cases, these children, after travelling for so many hours under harsh weather, were rejected and turned back by their states of origin or at best, they were kept in isolation under dehumanizing and demeaning condition,” she added.
The Gombe lawmaker further stated that such action was capable of putting Nigeria on the spotlight of human rights violators and at the same time jeopardize our fight against Covid-19.
The house, further in its resolutions urged the Federal Ministry of Health to examine the Health condition of the Almajiri Children and the Northern Governors Forum to rescind provided for in the Universal Basic and Technical Education System.
