Insecurity: Yoruba leader raises alarm over influx of Almajiri children into FCT

By Usman Shuaibu

The Otunba of Yoruba community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief (Dr) Wasiu Tunwase, has raised an alarm over the increasing influx of Almajiri children into the nation’s capital.
Tunwase, who spoke to newsmen in his palace at Zuba, in Gwagwalada area council on Tuesday, during the celebration to mark the end of this year’s Ramadan fasting, noted that the influx of the Almajiri children into the FCT is a security risk to residents.
He pointed out that the rate at which the Almajiri children are being transported from the northern parts of the country, and even from the Niger republic, into the FCT is worrisome, adding that this could lead to more security challenges in the nation’s capital and Nigeria in general, if not checked.
The monarch suggested that these Almajiri children should be picked up for rehabilitation and training by the government, before they turn out to be super criminals and bandits in future.
According to him, “I want to draw the attention of government to the menace of the influx of the Almajiri children into the FCT. The number of these children are increasing everyday as they are being brought in daily, in large numbers, from the northern parts of the country and even from the Niger republic.
With time, some of them will gradually become mai bolas, and before you know it they will be moving around the communities with knives, daggers and other dangerous weapons, vandalizing people’s property and constituting security risk to residents. This is because they didn’t receive any basic training.”
The Otunba also called on the federal government to find solution to the increasing cost of food in the country, noting that there is serious hunger in the land, as many people can no longer afford even two meals a day.
He added that the government should subsidise the cost of food items and set up a price control board to check the high cost of food in the markets.