North is Shifting Responsibility of Almajiri to The South – Ohaneze Alleges

The Ohaneze Ndigbo socio-cultural organisation, has alleged that Northern Governors are shifting the burden of Almajiri children to other parts of the country through their policy of deportation.

This was revealed by the National Publicity Secretary for the group, Uche Achi-Okpaga who granted an interview to Punch Newspaper.

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The Ohaneze man accused Northern Governors of creating problems for other states by shipping Almajiri children cross country.

Northern Governors had embarked on a policy of deportation of Almajiri children to their home states as one of the measures aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 in individual Northern states.

The Ohaneze spokesperson advocated that the deportations were against the inter-state travel restrictions put in place by the Federal Government.

He advised that Almajiri children should be allowed to remain where they are until the pandemic is contained.

As an apex Igbo social-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze is worried about the influx of Almajirai to southern Nigeria,” he said.

“However, it is a multifaceted problem. You remember that it was during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan that schools were built for Almajirai. The northerners were in power all the while and they never thought of it.

“Even after Jonathan built the schools for them, they did not envisage that in the near future the Almajirai would become a very big problem to the North. I think this is an orchestrated game plan.

“The Almajirai are moving in large number and travelling in trucks and buses. The question you should ask is who are those people providing those buses? The Almajirai we know don’t have money and they cannot afford to travel to far places in buses.

“So who are those providing the buses that are used to transport them within and outside the north? That is the question. The leaders of the North are aware that the Almajirai question has become a problem and they want to shift the burden to other places where people have been able to mind their business and manage their populations well.” he concluded.