The Northern Regional Police Command has arrested two Fulani men on Thursday November 25th 2010 for trafficking about 13 children from the Karaga District to the neighbouring Burkina Faso.
The two, Husein Lido, 30 and Nuhu Seeta 30 were arrested in Tamale upon a tip-off when they tried to negotiate for transport to convey the children to Burkina Faso.
The 13 children who are between the ages of 4 and 14 years, according to the Northern Regional Police Public Affairs Director, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh were made to walk barefooted for three good days, from Ziniimdo near Karaga to Tamale which is over 46 miles.
Even though it is not yet established in Police Investigations as to what the two suspected traffickers were going to use the children for; whether for child labour, sex objects or money rituals, Chief Inspector Tetteh said he suspected the two arrested persons had some level of evil intentions.
During Police Interrogations, Husein and Seeta (the suspects) claimed that the parents of all the 13 children had given their consents before embarking on the journey with the children.
According to them, the Parents, who are also Fulanis themselves, had given the children out to go back to Burkina Faso to learn “Arabic”.
But the Police PRO insists that the parents had no right to give out their children who could hardly speak to anybody at all to send to elsewhere, without first of all considering the supreme interest and rights of the child to enjoy parental care.
Meanwhile, there were no Certificates or any documents to prove that the two suspected child traffickers were Arabic teachers.
However, attempts by Savannahnews to speak to some of the children became very difficult due to language barrier.
At the time of filing this report, the Northern Regional Police were feeding the 13 children and also processing documents to hand them over to the Regional Social Welfare Department. But the suspects are currently in Police Cells to assist investigations.
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