By Oluwarotimi Olutayo
Back in 2010, rumors went abound that in a secluded place in Ibadan, the biggest city in Africa, children were being killed because their parents or the community at large considered this children as evil, mainly because they are twins or because they are born with physical or mental disabilities.
The many different Journalists who tried to investigate and verify this rumor ended up dropping the case when a journalist (name withheld) who went to the said area landed in the hospital with multiple injuries to the body. No arrests were made, leading to speculation that a powerful individual, most likely, a politician is involved in what seems to be a cover up of such inhumane activity.
Fast forward to 2019, 9 years after the initial rumor, the Oyo state police command uncovered an illegal rehabilitation centre at a popular Central Mosque in Ojo area of Ibadan where it rescued over 200 inmates.
Addressing journalists on Monday in Ibadan , the Commissioner of Police, Mr Shina Olukolu, said that the illegal centre was discovered following a tip off by an informant.
Olukolu said that young men and women were found at the centre who had been subjected to inhuman treatment.
He said that five persons suspected to be connected with the centre were arrested, adding that the police would seal off the facility and conduct further investigations.
The commissioner of police said that those involved would be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.
Narrating his ordeal, one of the persons rescued from the mosque, Bashir Olanrewaju, said he had been at the centre since July 14, 2015.
Olarenwaju said he was brought to the centre by his parents because he was an Indian hemp smoker.
He said that inmates were subjected to different inhuman treatments at the centre.
According to him, some inmates died while being tortured and their bodies taken to unknown location where they were buried without informing their parents.
Another victim, Tiwalade Rofiat, said she was brought to the centre by her parents because she was troublesome.
She said young children, who were mostly twins, were brought in and given to them to take care of and then taken away at a later time never to be seen again.
Tiwalade said that, although she was not sure what exactly they do with the children, but that she believed they were never seen again, going by a conversation she heard between two of their supervisors discussing about “the need for a new grave site to bury ‘the evil children.”’
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Alhaja Faosat Sanni, said the state would relocate the victims to a safer place and those with health challenges would be taken to the hospital.
Vanguard