By Brave Dickson
The Rivers State Islamic Leader and Vice President General, Rivers State Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Nasir Awheleble Uhor has commended the Kano State Governor, Alhaji Umar Ganduje for constituting a 16-man high powered committee to investigate cases of kidnapped and missing children, including the nine kidnapped Muslim children that were recently rescued in Onitsha by the police with the assistance of the governor.
In an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, Alhaji Uhor said Governor Ganduje frowned at how quick the incident did fizzle out of public attention and discourse shortly after the police rescued the nine kidnapped Muslim children.
The Islamic Leader recalled that about nine Muslim children from Kano State were kidnapped and taken to Onitsha.
The victims were also sold, converted to Christianity and given Christian names to cover their real identity which he described as heartless.
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He wondered why such an inhuman act did not attract the condemnation of concerned citizens and groups of the country who supposed to have demanded full-scale investigation into the matter and recommend harsh punishment for offenders.
Alhaji Uhor also recalled the case of the Christian girl, Lear Sharibu, who for two years had remained a captive of Boko Haram demons, noting that “the Country had not known respite over her continued incarceration.”
He said though her case had long gone, he remained thankful to the relentless efforts of the custodians of the nation’s conscience, who seem to have gone to sleep over the Kano children issue.
The Vice President General, however, lauded the police for bursting the Onitsha Kidnap gang, urging them not to relent but to join forces with Governor Ganduje to ensure the rescue of the over forty other children allegedly missing under similar circumstances like the Onitsha nine.
The police, he further said, “should uncover the real motives of the Onitsha gang and their partners in crime as the forceful conversion of the Muslim children might be a cover for more heinous crimes against the kidnapped children.
“The Onitsha kidnappers should leave Christianity out of it because there is no teaching in the Bible to support their beastly action against the innocent Muslim children. Besides, Christianity in Nigeria does not need the forceful conversion of atheists let alone Muslim children to boost its membership.”
The Islamic Leader, therefore, appealed to the government and Christians of Anambra State to sympathize with the Muslims by assisting the police to rescue other Muslim children still believed to be captives in Onitsha and other parts of the state, adding that keeping mute might send avoidable wrong and inciting signals across the country.
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