By Sule Aliyu, Bauchi
The quest for Islamic education by fathers to their children has made two unidentified fathers from Jigawa state to dump their two children in Bauchi state under the pretence of giving them Qur’anic education.
The two dumped children who gave their names as Nura Shehu and Sude Suleiman were found at about 10pm in the night sleeping near a culvert along Maiduguri by-pass in Bauchi metropolis.
Explaining the plight of the boys, the ward head of Gwallaga Quarters in Bauchi metropolis; Alhaji Dandada Amadu said the two children were brought to his house by two youths who found them sleeping outside in the night.
Ahmadu, who brought the boys to the NUJ Secretariat Thursday morning, explained that he was interrogating the little boys who are aged about 5 and 6 years respectively, they told him they were going back to their parents at Birnin Kudu in Jigawa state.
The traditional ruler said he took them in and gave them food and the next morning he took them to the District head of Bauchi who directed him to take them to social welfare to investigate who are their parents and how to re-unite them with their parents.
The ward head who could not hid his anger said that it was disheartening that parents could abandon vulnerable children like Nura and Sude who cannot even bath themselves very well.
He said “it is unfair for a father to come to over 100 kilometers to abandon his child. There are so many schools around where parents can take their child to study whether western or Quaranic education and watch their kids.”
According to him, the two abandoned kids were afraid and even attempted to run away from my house.
“This is a sad development and I am using this opportunity to call on parents to put their children in school near them to enable them care for them and see them grow up to become good citizens but to abandon these kids is wicked”, he said.
The Gwallaga ward head explained that the two children they have nothing on them, saying they can fall into danger of being kidnapped or use for ritual.
One of the two children, Nura who is about 6 years and looked terrified and fearful told journalists that they were running away because their Arabic teacher usually flogged them.
Showing scars of horse whips on his back, Nura said, “I ran away from my school because my teacher was always flogging me even when I am reciting the Qur’an, that is why I decided to run away to meet my parents in Birnin Kudu”.
Nura who could neither identify the name of his Arabic teacher nor the school he was studying in Bauchi said he was in primary two in Birnin Kudu before his father brought him to Bauchi.
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