PRESS STATEMENT BY THE CNG ON THE REVELATION OF THEFT, FORCED CONVERSION OF NORTHERN NIGERIAN CHILDREN

October 14, 2019

The Coalition of Northern Groups is deeply touched by the report of nine innocent children forcefully separated from their parents and moved to Eastern Nigerian towns.
We are profoundly agitated to learn that the children were also baptized with new names and forcefully converted to a religion other than the one their parents practice.
We are also moved that all the players on both removing and receiving points belong to a certain Nigerian tribe whose members are deeply entrenched in every town, city and village in northern Nigeria.
We are particularly saddened that days after the discovery of this heinous crime, no federal, state or local government, cultural, traditional, or religious group, NGO, or international organization has spoken on the matter.
We are further disturbed that even the national and international media except just a few appear to want to downplay this matter.

OBSERVATIONS

1. The fact that according to the revelation, this act of merciless crime against children who by definition require the guardianship and protection of adults, had been going on for more than five years undetected and undetected, raises concerns over the existence of several more similar operation locations in many other parts of northern Nigeria.

2. The fact that the cheft, movement are forceful conversion target mainly minors who are among the most vulnerable and innocent class of any society suggests a much wider agenda for the ultimate crippling of northern viability by debasing its human resource capital base.

3. The fact that the presidency which is always quick to condemn less grievous actions when they occur in the South is now silent in the face of more oppressive, obnoxious and heinous crime of physically and emotionally harming the most vulnerable people in northern society suggests that the North in the present context has been unjustly and unfairly abandoned and exposed with no official cover or protection.

4. The fact that a large section of the media, reporters, analysts and commentators appear to be uninterested in this matter, indicate a much wider coverup conspiracy whenever the northern interest is fundamentally breached.

OUR STAND
1. CNG calls on all northern societies to first and foremost refuse to accept any attempt to treat this particular case and similar others that may be uncovered as mere child trafficking considering the ages of the victims and the ritual of their renaming and forced conversion to Christianity.

2. The North must insist that in addition to child theft, molestation and forced separation from parents, this particular case and subsequent others that may be digged up, be appropriately dealt with as proselytism which is the act or fact of religious conversion, or attempts at conversion by 'unjust means that violate the conscience of the human person'.

3. We therefore demand an Act by the Kano state government to amend the Criminal Code so that the minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years are treated as felony with lifetime sentences or death for severer offences such as this one.
a. We demand that all northern states governments also enact similar laws to protect our children from further abuse, torment, and mental or physical exploitation.

4. We demand further enactments by all northern states governments to compel parents, relatives, caretakers, and others who are charged with child care and guidance, media, school officials, physicians, police officers, and other such authority figures to report any signs of abuse or exploitation against a child anywhere in the North.

5. We demand that the federal and Kano state governments set up credible independent commissions of enquiry to holistically look into the depth of the crime including motive, spread and extent of individual and group involvement in the at least the last 10 years.

6. We demand that all northern states governments initiate comprehensive investigations into the possibility of similar crimes carried out, going on, or planned to be carried out in any part of the North.

7. We call on all northern lawyers and all categories of legal practitioners of northern extraction to mobilize and insist on thorough investigation, prompt and diligent prosecution, appropriate conviction and sentence of individuals, groups and interests directly or remotely connected to the current case and similar others that may be unearthed.

8. We demand all northern states governments to order the immediate relocation of luxurious bus stations from the outskirts to approved mainstream motor parks in view of the fact that most cases of trafficking in drugs, arms and humans are carried out using these buses.

9. We alert the entire northern public especially those in neighbourhoods populated by elements of this.