John Shiklam in Kaduna
The Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Musa Garba, has said that the recruitment of underage children as house helps by some Nigerians and the attitude of some parents were undermining the protection and enforcement of children’s right.
He stated this at the opening of a two-day orientation workshop organised in Kaduna by the United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) for police officers and other stakeholders on theme: ‘Nigeria Police Force Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on Handling Cases Involving Children in Conflict with the Law’.
Garba said the protection and enforcement of children’s rights will not be effective when many Nigerians employ underage children as domestic staff and parents fail in their responsibilities to their children.
He said, “If we want to protect the rights of children, we should start from our homes.
“We cannot be here talking about protecting the rights of children and then in our homes, we have underage children working for us.”
He lamented that some people have so many children without catering for their needs, noting that “it is wrong to give birth to many children and send them to the streets to fend for themselves.”
“You will see some children below the age of puberty taken to well to do families to work for them.
“I am calling on everybody to stop recruiting underage children as house helps,” he said.
Garba said the Inspector General of Police, “feels that we should always sensitise our officers to not only know the rights of children, but to learn how to protect them.”
According to him, the SOP on handling cases involving children in conflict with the law, was developed to raise awareness within the Nigerian Police Force.”
He said the training was very apt and called for collaboration with stakeholders to address cases of child abuse.
In a good will message at the event, Chairman of Justice for Children Committee, Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, noted that the understanding of the SOP “will definitely help in guiding the police to know the objectives of interfacing with children that have come in conflict with the law.”
The judge said his committee had gone round all police divisions across the three senatorial zones in Kaduna State to see the number of children that have come in conflict with the law and are in police custody.
“We interfaced with them and the results we got were quite disturbing,” he said.
According to him, child offenders should not be treated like adult offenders as there are different procedures in handling both cases.
He said the training will certainly “bring Kaduna State Police Command in line with international best practice if the procedure is effectively harnessed and implemented.”
Child Protection Specialist for UNICEF in Kaduna, Dr. Wildred Mamah, said the workshop was aimed at helping the police come up with a standard operating procedure to help them to implement the law as it affects children.
He said, “UNICEF as you know is an international organisation, focusing on rights of children.
“To that end, we have pushed for the domestication of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child.
“The good news is that Nigeria is now doing very well in that area.”
Mamah said the essence of training was to help the police at the federal level to come up with a standard operating procedure to help them to implement that law- defining the dos and don’ts in legal issues concerning children.
He said the procedure has been adopted at the national level.
“We are launching this SOP in Kaduna State and getting police officers, especially those who work with children and gender units to have a common knowledge about the procedure,” he added.
