The Bayelsa House of Assembly on Friday in Yenagoa passed a resolution barring the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies in the state from detaining child suspects in adult cells.
In a motion co-sponsored by the member representing Kolokumo/Opokuma Constituency, Emmanuel Tonye and member representing Southern Ijaw 111, Daniel Igali, the lawmakers decried the act of keeping children in the same cell with adults.
The lawmakers further urged the Ministry of Gender and Social Development, local government authorities and other government agencies and departments in the state to take steps toward establishing functional remand or correction homes for juveniles in the state.
According to them, detaining juveniles in adult cells occupied by hardened criminals will make the child become more criminally minded instead of reforming them.
He said: “The rising issue of arrest and detention of child suspects together with adult offenders and subjecting them to severe torture and starvation by the police and other security agencies will further make them hardened criminals.”
They said that such acts amounted to child rights abuse and would further increase the rate of crimes in the society.
The lawmakers expressed hope that establishing remand homes for juveniles would help reform the child suspects and make them useful citizens to the society.
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