Court Convicts Four Persons For Unlawful Possession Of Children In Jos North LGA

Yakubu Busari

No fewer than four Persons were on Tuesday convicted by a Jos Chief Magistrate court, presided by Magistrate Rosaline Baraje, over cruelty and unlawful possessions of children.

The four persons had been prosecuted by the State commissioner of Police with charges ranges from conspiracy, cruelty and unlawful possession of children, who were intercepted in batches coming from Bauchi, Jigawa and Kaduna States.

Information available revealed that the court Tuesday, ordered for the transfer of the 154 children to their parents, via the Jos North chapter of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), to the Bauchi State chapter of the JNI.

The first set of convicts Ibrahim Umar a driver of one of the trucks and Sani Isa a Malam, were charged for criminal conspiracy contrary to section 157 of the penal code law and were convicted under section 97 of the same law, having being first term offenders, after pleading guilty to the charge.

The court convicted them to one year imprisonment, or pay the option of N7,000 as fine.

According to the court the other two convicts Malams Imrana Rabiu and Salisu Usman, whose two charges of criminal conspiracy against children and unlawful possession of same contravened sections 157 and 238, were also convicted to two charges of 3 months imprisonment or pay an option of N3,000 as fine under section 79, and also 1 year of imprisonment with an option of N7,000 as fine under section 283 respectively.

Magistrate Baraje, cautioned the convicts not to commit the act again in interest of the right of the children and the good future of Nigeria.

Similarly, the court had also granted bail to eleven other persons in connection with the conveyance of the children to Nasarawa State, for the Al-Majire form education, and adjourned the matter to 27/01/2017, to enable the police present their records that the accused are both second term offenders.

Our correspondent gathered that the children were 185 in total, while 154 are from Gajuwa, Darazau, Ninge and Kirfe Local Government Areas of Bauchi State.

Meanwhile, it was gathered from the Defense counsel to the children and some of the Malams Barrister Auwal Abdullahi, that the BauchI State Governor Muhammad Abubakar, has directed for the facilitation of the transfer of the children back to their respective parents.

According to Barrister Abdullahi, the Governor is particularly interested in the safety of the children and; “he has since instructed the state commissioner for religious affairs to ensure the safety returns of the children to their various LGAs and parents.”

The Jos North JNI official responsible for the transfer of the children Alhaji Sabo Shuaibu has also told our correspondent that; “we are now waiting for the order of the court to be taken to the Plateau state  commissioner of Police and from there we will ensure the safety transfer of the children as ordered by the court.”