Seated crossed legged on a sheep skin facing the kabbah, a tasbi (rosary) in hand and totally engrossed in meditative prayer to Allah, Imam says: “assalam alakum warahmatu-lah.”

To any passer-by he is the very personification of Muslim piety and purity of heart – truly a man of Allah. But, alas, as Shakespeare would put it, this solemn posture is no more “a goodly apple rotten at the heart. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood has!”

Crusading Guide and Daily Guide’s six months investigation in Bimbilla has revealed that Imam Alfa Abubakar Alhassan is a slave master of fifteen trafficked Fulani children, whom he recruited within Ghana and other neighboring West African countries like Togo and Nigeria into a life of begging and hard labor under a fraudulent promise of a free makaranta education.

Trafficked children aged between 4 and 15, both male and female, are subjected to severe forms of labour exploitation that serve to enrich this charlatan. Vilely misusing the authority of an ‘ustaz,’ he has ruthlessly raped and impregnated a 13-year-old student.

Ghana’s Journalist of the Year, 2007 and Daily Guide’s Halifax Ansah Addo on a motorbike zoomed into Bimbilla, Pusiga, Kpabe and other villages carefully monitoring the activities of Imam Alfa.
When “his students” are unable to make daily begging sales of GH¢1, they are caned and denied food. It has been reported that this abuse resulted in the deaths of two of Imam Alfa’s students. The other children were ordered to dig graves and bury their compatriots by themselves. The pious Imam Alfa did not have time to waste a prayer on the bodies of his victims.

Furthermore, he hires these children out as farm labourers, where they toil under the scorching sun to further fill his pockets. Asana, a neighbor residing adjacent to Imam Alfa’s house, says: “I see him beat up the kids every time, they are sent to people’s farms and to beg. If they do not meet their daily quota, they are whipped and denied food. I have reported to the local police but to no avail.”

Imam Alfa in his supposed charity agenda has taken in impoverished children to educate them in the ways of the Quran. But, when the layers of illusion are stripped away, he is nothing more than a criminal, using religion as a camouflage for his ungodly and inhumane activities. Eight-year-old student Yasin, (to protect this victim, his real name is withheld) with tears glistening in his eyes, relates his experience of living with his master Imam Alfa: “He uses dried animal skin to whip us when we are unable to make the daily quota. It is very painful because it easily breaks our skin. Then he will tell us we have spent the money at the market so we will not eat, then we will sleep on an empty stomach, and go out again in the morning for begging. Then he goes to take a contract to weed peoples' farms, and throws us into the farm, to weed from morning to evening with little food, and when we are tired he will whip on our backs and say we are lazy. After that he will send us to the cattle ranch where we keep vigil guarding the cows. We milk the cows early in the morning and come home to prepare for begging.”

In the name of ‘zakat’, alms giving, one of the pillars of Islam, pious Moslems drop coins into the outstretched tin cups and calabashes of these Fulani kids, thinking that their alms to the child beggar would put at least crumbs of bread into the mouths of the needy. Alas the child does not benefit, as it all goes into the greedy palms of this self proclaimed piety.

For Imam Alfa, it is a very profitable business to exploit these children, while he rides the fleet of motorcycles which he purchased from their relentless days of work and starvation. He is comforted by the sight of his 58 cows grazing nearby, while he imbibes holy words from the Quran (Islam’s holy book), the same Quran that says “Woe unto those who pray, but are not earnest in their prayer, who pray only for men to see, And fail to do even a token neighbourly act of charity.” Quran 107; 4-7. “It is not righteousness that you turn your face to the East and the West in prayer.” Quran 2; 177.

Article 11 of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) likewise demonstrates Islam’s disgust for such exploitative acts: “Human beings are born free, and no one has the right to enslave, humiliate, oppress or exploit them, and there can be no subjugation but to the God the Most-High.”

Global trend

	Some of the trafficked kids 'working' at Bimbilla

These Fulani children are amongst 1.2 million other vulnerable children trafficked worldwide. A trafficked child is one who is recruited and transported from one place to another across a national border or within internal borders, legally or illegally, without the child’s consent, usually but not always organized by an intermediary: parent, family member, teacher, procurer, or local authority. At the destination, the child is forced to engage in activities under exploitative and abusive conditions. They are deprived of the most basic human rights and protections guaranteed to them by Ghanaian laws, like the Human Trafficking Act 694 (2005), The Children’s Act (1998) and various international conventions like The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nana Oye Lithur of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in an interview said that: “we need to monitor our law enforcement agencies to ensure that they are capable of implementing and enforcing the law by punishing those who break the law.”

According to the International Labour Organization, by keeping 126 million children in servitude, their masters generate US$15m (€9.5 billion) annually. This highly lucrative business turns children not only into beggars but also into prostitutes, organ donors, miners, fishermen, farm laborers, soldiers and porters … ruining their developing bodies and stealing their hope in humanity.

Abdul-Razak Yakubu of Enslavement Prevention Alliance – West Africa said that: “child trafficking should be recognized as a national issue, which affects the most vulnerable members of our society. As Ghanaians, we are all responsible for ensuring that child trafficking issues are adequately addressed by the appropriate agencies in our country and that the victims receive proper care and protection upon rescue.”

Defilement

Mallam Alfa is in the eye of a moral storm that has rocked the town of Bimbilla.

Further investigation revealed that he has committed other horrendous crimes toward one of his female students. Three years ago, he defiled and impregnated a 13 year old Sharifa (to protect this victim, her real name is withheld), who was under his tutelage and care.

Testimonies from neighbours indicate that it was a despicable rape incident and there might be other instances of similar abuse of other females under his care.

Human Rights Commission drama

Officials of the Bimbilla Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) were stunned when one fine morning a student from Alfa’s makaranta appeared at their premises with a bleeding nose, eyes, dislocated arm and bruises all over the body.

Kalala Iddi Mustapha, a bailiff of CHRAJ told Anas in an interview that: “after helping her clean the blood which was gushing out, the child reported that she had been physically assaulted by Imam Alfa.

The situation was so bad that I had to quickly rush her to the police station to pick up a medical form to ensure that she was quickly attended to at the Bimbilla hospital.”

Saa-id Augustine, District Director, also confirmed the story. They narrated how they had on many occasions attempted to intervene on these children’s behalf without any success at Imam Alfa’s ‘court’.

“He threatened to use the Quran to curse us if we proceeded to stop him from exploiting the children,” said Nassam Mohammed, the District Secretary for CHRAJ.

Bright Appiah of Child Rights International told the Crusading GUIDE that Alfa’s act is not only disgraceful but criminal. “The agencies responsible for ensuring that the child is protected in Ghana must rise up to their responsibilities and ensure that these kids are given some comfort.” Debbie Ariyo, the Executive Director of AFRUCA, an NGO based in London UK said that: “the government should provide social services including counseling and housing for victims of child trafficking.”

The government and NGOs in the field of Human/Child trafficking must collaborate to address the size of the problem, in tackling demand and by sharing intelligence and strategies.

Currently Imam Alfa is in the grips of the Bimbilla Police Command, who upon a tip off from Anas has also rescued the children to be reunited with their families.



Source: Crusading Guide/Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Sandow Seidu Kpebu (London)