Torture centres

Governments have a primary duty of protecting citizens and guaranteeing their welfare. Thus, the first sign that a state is failing is when law enforcement agencies do not have monopoly of weapons or are unable to promote the welfare of the most vulnerable sector of the state, especially the women, children and the chronically sick.

In recent times, the police in many parts of the country have been bursting centres ostensibly established by religious bodies to cater for difficult children, the mentally ill, drug addicts and those regarded as deviants in various societies.

It started in Kaduna State in September when the police commissioner led journalists to the Hammad bin Hambul Centre for Islamic Learning where more than 300 inmates, most of them in chains and kept in unhygienic conditions were forcibly released.

In the course of the following days, no less than a dozen similar centres in Kaduna, Katsina and Kano states were exposed.

All said they were conducting healing sessions and rehabilitating the morally depraved who were brought by their parents. In Ilorin, another Islamic centre where 108 persons were released was thrown open to public scrutiny. Like the others, inmates were shackled, poorly fed, regularly beaten and some were sexually abused.

But such gory sights and torture centres are not limited to a religion or region. In Lagos, Pastor Joseph Ojo, founder of Blessing of Goodness Healing Church who was arrested by the police did not fare better.

The 15 persons released from his church were kept in inhuman conditions. And, in Ibadan, an Islamic centre ostensibly established to teach Arabic and the religion was found to be a perverse facility.

While proprietors of the iniquitous facilities have argued that the children were brought by parents concerned about the depravity of their wards, and in recognition of the centres’ reputation, the optics from the rooms, kitchens and visage of the inmates confirmed that the proprietors were not qualified to perform the task they claimed they had set out to deliver to the society.

To be deemed qualified for the task, the facilities ought to have been certified by the respective social welfare units of the state government.

They ought to have demonstrated capacity through the recruitment of qualified teachers, adequate accommodation capacity, well equipped clinics, psychologists and advertised criteria to admit inmates. Besides, progress reports of duly registered inmates showing the condition, date admitted, requirements and diagnosis should be filed with the state government.

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It is unfortunate that the state governments have failed to perform their responsibility to citizens. A time there was when each state had remand homes for difficult children.

Inadequate provision and failure to perform their supervisory roles created the vacuum being filled or exploited by the torture centres. This must stop forthwith. It is no use domesticating the Child Rights Act if a state government cannot look out for and after the children.

It’s even worse that some of the inmates discovered are well educated and full grown men. One is a doctorate degree holder and another pursuing his Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics.

The contention that they might have developed some form of mental condition is no reason to confine such men to such degrading treatments when they had not been availed of proper diagnosis.

We appreciate that religion and culture could have dictated the form of treatment, but it must be understood that this is the 21st Century when the society is governed by rules and laws, and all are subject to legislation.

We call on the civil society groups to partner with the police in this wise. Other law enforcement agencies, especially the Department of State Services, should rise up to supplying credible intelligence. It is the failure of intelligence that allowed them to fester. It was also a failure of intelligence that other forces other than the DSS exposed them.

‘It is unfortunate that the state governments have failed to perform their responsibility to citizens. A time there was when each state had remand homes for difficult children. Inadequate provision and failure to perform their supervisory roles created the vacuum being filled or exploited by the torture centres’