Ekiti releases 10 pupils arrested for hawking

The Ekiti State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Sola Fafure, said on Wednesday that the 10 children of school age arrested by officials of the state government for contravening the state Child’s Right Law had been released.

Fafure said parents of the children signed undertakings that they would take care of the children and ensure they were in school at appropriate times.

The state’s Child’s Right Law provides that all children must be given access to education.

Fafure said the pupils were picked up from different locations in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, on Tuesday during school hours contrary to existing state law.

She said, “The children were found loitering about or seen hawking with or without school uniforms on them when they were supposed to be in school.

“One of the pupils apprehended was a 10-year-old whose father allegedly signed up as an apprentice, knowing full well that the child was still of school age.”

The commissioner said the exercise to rid the state of school -age children hawking or roaming the streets during school hours would soon extend to the 16 council areas.

She, however, called on all parents and guardians to key into the free education programme of the Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration.

Fayemi had, while speaking recently at a sensitisation programme for school enrolment 2019/2020 academic session, warned that parents who kept their school-age children out of school in the state risked being prosecuted.

The governor had said, “Let it be known that we have a Child’s Right Act in Ekiti which prohibits parents from disallowing their children of school age to be out of school during school session.

“In order to ensure that we implement that law, we have a family court in the state that takes responsibility for children that are not in school and parents who fail their responsibility.”