CHILD ABUSE
Benue Residents Blame Rising Phenomenon on Ignorance, Poverty
Residents of Benue state have blamed the rising cases of child abuse on ignorance and lack of adequate awareness on the dangers of the act.
Reacting to cases of kids, especially minors roaming the streets in the metropolis after leaving their villages, residents are saying that such children are being molested, sexually abused or forced into child labour and prostitution.
These kids who are mostly from remote villages, leave their biological parents with or sometimes without their spprovals, to the city center, while some are unaccompanied minors roaming the streets of Makurdi and other urban settlements, searching for survival means.
With continuous awareness creation and enlightenment, crimes against kids are drawing widespread condemnation from members of the public who say child labour, hawking, prostitution or rape, which most of the children are exposed to, spell doom for their future.
Godwin Sefa is a Child Rights Advocate, he says “the kids are lured to the city because of poverty and the Ignorance of the parents who many times are deceived into thinking that they will have a better life through education for the kids.”
To him, parents should have kids they can control rather than “sending them away to relations and strangers as if they are livestock.”
Geoffrey Mkena, a parent is also worried, for him, he is urging “stakeholders, most especially the parents to reconsider the plight of the kids who have been left unchecked for too long.”
A Teacher and Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Jinge is accusing the parents and caregivers of high-handedness against the kids. She says: “children should be guided in a society that is brutal to them. It is worrisome how kids now roam the streets hawking, doing hard labour. They easily fall prey to ritualist and rapists.” She says the government and parents can do better for the kids.
The absence of basic infrastructure in the villages, experts say is the major reason for rural to urban migration in the state.
They urged governments at all levels to provide basic amenities at local levels in order to save children from abuses.
