The Police at Bimbilla in the Northern Region last Thursday swooped on the slave camp of Alpha Abubakar Alhassan, a Fulani herdsman believed to be in his 50s, rescuing a number of children who were kidnapped, kept as slaves and subjected to inhuman treatment. Fifteen children between the ages of 4 and 14 and believed to have been either lured or stolen from Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger and some parts of Northern Ghana were rescued during the swoop and are being kept with the Department of Social Welfare. This was the result of an intensive investigation by two crack journalists: Daily Guide's Halifax Ansah-Addo and the Crusading Guide’s Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The journalists, who have in their possession both video and still footages of the chilling story, undertook the operation disguised in Islamic robes and caps to blend with the locals. Investigations showed that Alpha Alhassan used the children as money-making tools, compelling each of them to bring ‘home’ a minimum of GH¢1 as daily proceeds of an apparently ‘booming’ alms business. Even though Alpha Alhassan sent the children out on empty stomachs, failure to reach the GH¢1 quota per day meant the child involved would be severely assaulted and be left to go hungry the rest of the day. Investigations revealed that none of the children was in school. Reports said after one of the assault sessions, one of the victims was taken ill and he eventually died. So dire was the human rights situation in the camp that the child’s corpse was left unattended to until the other traumatized children took the initiative to bury it in a nearby bush. During another assault session, one of the children, Barikisu Gariba, was beaten to the extent that she bled from the eyes, mouth, ears and nose. Unable to contain the torment any further, the young girl fled to the local office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for help. Alpha Alhassan, who kept the children under the guise of teaching them Islamic doctrines, also used his captives to solicit weeding and farming contracts from the local people and after pocketing the entire money, he would order the children to execute the contracts. Upon their rescue last Thursday, the Police helped in bathing the children who were dirty and had sores and bruises all over their bodies. The two undercover journalists secured the help of a charity organization which provided the children with food and clothing before they were transported to the Social Welfare Department. According to the children, some of their female colleagues became pregnant, expressing the belief that their owner was responsible. They however could not tell what happened to the pregnant girls as they were taken away from the camp, never to return. Upon gathering the information, the two journalists lodged a complaint at the Bimbilla Police Station and after the police had done their independent checks, they raided the slave camp and rescued the children. It was gathered that at night, Alpha Alhassan divided his captives into two groups - one slept in a hut on his compound while the other kept watch over the cattle ranch he owned. The group at the cattle ranch was further divided into two. While one group kept vigil, with an eye on the cattle, the other slept for about two hours, after which they switched roles till daybreak. During the raid, the older children, out of fright, ‘spoke’ to the cattle to attack the police but later revoked the command when they realized the security agents meant no harm. During the initial tension, the cattle dramatically moved towards the police, who corked their guns, ready to open fire. It was alleged that Alpha Alhassan had used proceeds from the alms business over the years to buy three motorbikes and the 58 herd of cattle he owned. Thirteen children were rescued on the night of the raid, as three said they would stay behind to keep watch over the cattle. The next morning however, two out of the three came to the Bimbilla Police Station on their own and asked that they be allowed to join the rest. The suspect is being kept at the Tamale Regional Police Headquarters as the Police continue their investigations. CHRAJ Saa-Ib Augustine, Acting Director of CHRAJ in the District confirmed that his outfit became aware of the children’s predicament in 2004 and had on several occasions invited Alpha Alhassan to draw his attention to the fact that the children did have rights. Mr. Augustine said Alpha Alhassan was inconsistent and not convincing in the explanations he gave as to how he got the children and also failed to live by his promise to treat the children humanely. He said Alpha Alhassan claimed he was from Niger and had two wives and four children, all staying in Niger and studying the Koran there. “We have spoken to him on several occasions and advised him but we had to step aside when he threatened that if we kept asking him to send the children to school, he would take them out of Bimbilla to the bush, build a hut there and do whatever he pleases,” Nassau Mohammed, a staff of the local CHRAJ office told the two investigative journalists. “He said he would use the Koran to curse us if we kept worrying him; and one needs to be careful of such things when it is coming from an Alpha.” The CHRAJ officers said they had received reports that the children were made to bath with water only once in a month and also lived under very squalid conditions and that when one of the children came to them with blood oozing from her eyes, nose and mouth, they forwarded the case to the Bimbilla Police Station where the victim was given a medical form and rushed to the Bimbilla Government Hospital. Medical reports confirmed that the child had been severely assaulted. Locals in the community showed open dislike for the treatment meted out to the children but were afraid to confront Alpha Alhassan because he threatened to invoke curses upon anyone who would dare stand up to him, and then flee into the bush with the children. Source: Daily Guide