More than 300 people at Rigasa in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State have been delivered by the police of from a torture centre set up as an Islamic rehab home.
The inmates in chains, including children who were being sodomised, were brought from Burkina Faso, Mali and other African countries, according to the police.
They were also subjected to daily recitation of the Holy Quaran and prayers with torture.
“I have spent three months here. I am supposed to be pursuing my Masters at the University of Pretoria in South Africa,’ said Bello Hamza, one of the inmates.
He said he was coaxed into coming to the centre by his family members who wanted to dispossess him of his birthright.
“This is supposed to be an Islamic centre, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling. However, engaging in homosexuality attracts no punishment.”
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Police, Ali Janga, said his command got information that something suspicious was going on in this rehabilitation centre or Islamic centre.
“On getting here, we discovered that this is neither a rehabilitation centre nor Islamic school,” he said.
“The man who is operating this home claimed that parents brought their children here for rehabilitation. But, from the look of things, this is not a rehabilitation centre. No reasonable parent will bring their children to this place.”
But the head of the centre called Malam denied such activities went on there.
He insisted all they did in the centre was the teaching of Islam.