SAHARANEWS – An elder statesman and second republic lawmaker Dr Junaid Muhammed has called for the arrest and prosecution of security operatives at the borders between states that allow for Almajerai to be concealed in trailers like cows to smuggled to the Southern States.
Dr Junaid Muhammad speaking against the backdrop of a recent situation when South East, South-South States clamped down on almajirai relocating from North.
It would be recalled, the Enugu State government intercepted and turned back nine busloads of almajirai following a failed attempt to sneak them into the state.
They were dislodged from the North, as governors in the region moved urgently to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of the pupils trying to find new havens in the South have been prevalent.
It was reported that security operatives alongside council chairmen and youths stopped about three hundred of the pupils around the Enugu-Benue boundaries, particularly at Udenu, Igbo-Eze North and Nsuka Local Government Area.
President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast on 27th of April had talked about the new plan to ensure there is no movement between States, however, the security at the border posts have been compromising and letting the almajerais to be smuggled to other States.
The elder statesman said his views for the past 60 years on Almajerai has not changed. “I don’t believe the almajiri is necessary, I don’t believe it is politics or religion, I don’t believe it is in the interest of our country to allow this unhealthy phenomenon.
“It is economically counterproductive, it does not help in developing the country or developing the young men who are the Almajerai.
“If they are brought up to be almajerai most of them does not know the Koran, they don’t know modern education, they have no trade, no job, they have no training, so as far as I am concerned it is, in fact, an abuse of these children who are brought up to be almajerai.”