Daily Trust reports that the Police in Plateau State intercepted about 145 almajiri children in Jos while being conveyed in two trucks to Kaduna and Nasarawa States. The children mostly between the ages of four and eight, including three teenagers, three Malams and two drivers were intercepted last Thursday night by men of sector 2 attached to Operation Safe Haven stationed opposite University of Jos.
The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Tyopev Mathias Terna, who confirmed the incident said that the minors were being moved from Bauchi and Jigawa States to the two States for Islamic education adding that the police was liaising with the State governments of Bauchi and Jigawa to handover the children.
The children reports looked tattered and were seen queuing up to receive water for ablution on Tuesday morning. The two drivers of the Trucks Ibrahim Muhammad and Ibrahim Umar said they were conveying only 96 children to Jagindi in Kaduna State and Lafiya, Nasarawa State.
Muhammad said he was given N60, 000 to convey 72 children with their malams to Jagindi while Umar said he was given 10,000 to convey 24 children to Lafiya adding he was also conveying some grains which was why he had charged only N10, 000.
The Malams who gave their names as Dahiru Usman, Abdullahi Muhammad and Abdulrahman Yahaya all claimed to be from Bauchi State and said the children were handed to them by their parents and were to be taken to Lafiya and Kaduna for three months which they claimed is the usual trend during the dry season after harvest.
The three mallams and two drivers have been charged to court.