Maiduguri — The revelation was made yesterday at a stakeholders meeting in Kano, where it was observed that apart from increased cases of rape, children in the affected states are also exposed to hard labour, child trafficking, stigmatisation, witchcraft, illegal detention and other forms of deprivations.

The states are Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa and Kano.

Mrs Lucy Usen, an officer of CPN in Gombe State, said at least 22 cases of rape involving children were recorded in the state and lamented that many more cases of rape were not reported, partly because of ignorance, poverty and fear of stigmatization by the parents of the victims.

In Kano, CPN said over 50 cases of child-rape were recorded across the state while Bauchi had a record of 11 cases.

The trend in Bauchi involves a police officer that raped nine under aged boys and another case involving two lecturers of a tertiary institution who raped an under aged girl.

In Plateau State, there are about eight other cases of rape while Nasarawa had about four established cases of child rape.

Jerry Kuje, the CPN officer in Nasarawa State said child abuses in rural communities across northern Nigeria are rampant.