The police rescued 126 laborers who were reportedly held hostage for three months in a factory called ‘popular farm rice’ in the industrial area of Challawa, Kano state.
It was discovered that, following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the Nigerian laborers were ‘forcibly abducted’ by the company, forced to work under harsh conditions, and given only N5000 in addition to their meager pay for working day and night during the lockdown.
Four senior employees of the Indian-owned Kano company were arrested in connection with the incident.
Spokesperson for Kano Police, Abdullahi Haruna said; “On the 21 June, 2020, at about 6pm.,? a complaint was received from Global Community for Human Right Network, Kano, that some labourers were wrongly confined inside Popular Farms and Mills Limited located at No. 54 Challawa Industrial Estate Kano.
“On receipt, teams of Policemen were deployed and when search was conducted, 126 labourers trapped inside the Factory for three months were discovered. Investigation is in progress.”
The staff who talked to The Nation said that should they went home to see their families, the company managers threatened to fire them. While one of the released employees told journalists that he had been in the factory since March 23, another said that he had been in the factory since March 28, and that he had been prevented from seeing his family and parents.
An employee identified as Haruna Salihu said; “Our family members are seriously disturbed, as they don’t know the (condition we are in). My wife and my kids used to come to the factory’s gate and I couldn’t go and meet them.
“We were tricked to stay in the factory for five days, then (it was) extended to seven days, then two weeks and subsequently extended to one month. We are now detained for over three months.
“There are about 600 workers in the factory. We are sleeping in a very poor environment. I am appealing to authorities to allow me to go back to my family.”