By Chidinma Ufomadu
No fewer than 126 persons have been rescued by the Police in Kano from a rice-processing factory, where they were locked and forced to work since March.
The factory, Popular Farms, is owned by Indians with five of its managers arrested although yet to respond to reporters’ requests for comments.
In March, the workers claimed to have been promised an extra N5000 in addition to their N27000 monthly salary and anyone who was not comfortable with that, stood the risk of losing their job.
Prior to this, Popular Farms’ workers claimed to have been asked to double their hours in February as their employers wanted to stockpile in preparation for a shutdown.
However, the factory has now been shut down and managers being interrogated for “holding the men against their will”.
During the period of imprisonment, the workers say they were cajoled to work with little food.
A 126 had been found, although, the workers said that they were about 300, the Police spokesman, Abdullahi Haruna, told BBC reporters.
A 28-year-old rescued worker, Hamza Ibrahim, told BBC reporters that they were only allowed to rest for a short time without family visits and prayers.
The police got information about the imprisoned workers after one of the workers called a human right’s organisation.
A member of the Global Human Rights Network, Karibu Yahaya Kabara, said to the reporters, “What I saw was heart breaking. Where the company kept these people to live isn’t fit for animals,
“Their meals weren’t enough and there were no drugs for those that took ill,” he further said.
“On receiving the information a team of policemen was deployed and when a search was conducted, 126 labourers trapped inside the factory for three months were rescued,” he said.
According to him, four officials of the factory have been arrested and investigation has commenced to “unravel facts of the matter”.
Karibu stated that his organisation was taking up the case to ensure that the men got justice.
It can be recalled that as a means to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the Nigerian Government instructed all businesses to close.
Despite that, Nigeria still has over 21,371 cases with Lagos as the epicentre of the disease, and Kano State; the third in ranking of the coronavirus cases.
