Pretoria - A Nigerian man has been arrested for allegedly keeping fifteen children tied in chains in Suleja local government area, in Niger State, police have said on Monday.
In a statement, Niger State police spokesperson, Wasiu Abiodun, said that the children were between two and 10 years of age, and were kept by the 46-year-old man under the guise of running an Almajiri school.
Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practised in northern Nigeria.
Abiodun said the children were all tied up by the legs with three strong chains and were found in the most dehumanising condition.
"The children have been handed over to the Niger State Child Right Agency."
He said the case was being investigated and said that the suspect will appear in court soon. In another separate incident in Ogun State, a man was last week arrested for allegedly burning his 10-year-old son on the buttocks using a heated knife after the boy opened a tin of Milo.
Ogun State police spokesperson Abimbola Oyeyemi said the incident happened at Owode, in the Yewa South local government area.
Oyeyemi said the father was arrested after neighbours called police, saying that there was a boy crying loudly in a nearby house.