The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ese Oruru

  • Ese Oruru: Court returns Yunusa to prison 

    Ese Oruru: Court returns Yunusa to prison 

    The Federal High Court, sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Monday, ordered further detention of Yunusa Dahiru, alias Yellow, in Okaka Prisons, for the alleged abduction of 14-year-old Ese Oruru, following discrepancies in his bail application.

    Justice H.A Ngajiwa ruled that Yunusa should remain in prison custody pending the determination of an application seeking his bail.

    Also at the resumed hearing on the matter, the state through the police sought the approval of the court to hear Oruru’s oral evidence in camera.

    Ngajiwa made the remand order following the inability of the suspect’s five-man team of lawyers led by Kayode Olaosebikan and the prosecution three-man team headed by Kenneth Dika to present evidence of judicial precedent in their arguments during the court session.

    The judge concluded that the bail application had suffered setback because the teams of lawyers could not present to the court all authorities they mentioned in their cases as directed by the court.

    Dahiru is facing a five-count charge of criminal abduction, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of the 14-year-old Oruru.

    He was brought to the courtroom at about 10.am escorted by some prison officials.

    The Kano-born Dahiru looked pensive and lean in his green traditional Hausa attire.

    Following his stalled case, Yunusa was ordered by the judge to step out of the dock.

    The prosecution, however, brought a prayer before the court asking it to allow Oruru to be quizzed and evidence taken in camera because of her age.

    The prayer was vehemently opposed by Yunusa’s lawyers who insisted that all examinations and cross examinations must be done in the open court.

    The seven-paragraph affidavit asking for Yunusa’s bail was deposed to by Oladeji Maxwell of Olaosebikan and Co., while the prosecution affidavit rejecting the bail application was deposed to by Debo Waheed.

    The prosecution asked the court to decline the bail request by Yunusa’s legal team, which consisted of Audu Bulama, Oche Alex, Yahaya Sheriff and Huwaila Mohammed.

    In its argument opposing the bail application, the prosecution noted that it was difficult to bring Yunusa from the Muslim Council in Kano where he was first arrested.

    He argued that if the accused were granted bail, it would literally put an end to the case.

    ‘’It took the police from since August till now to get the suspect arrested. If he’s granted bail, he will not come back to this court because he is not even resident in this jurisdiction,’’ the prosecution said.

    But Yunusa’s legal team, however, argued that since it was a ‘bailable’ offence, there was nothing stopping the judge from granting the prayer of the accused.

    Olaosebikan, called on the judge to discountenance the prosecution’s resistance, arguing that the statement was even an indictment on the police legal team.

    He said: ‘’It is preposterous that a member of the police force would say that they cannot retrieve Yunusa from the Muslim council in Kano, when the members of that body are all civilians. The court should not rely on that argument.

    But Ngajiwa reserved ruling on the bail application to a later date and ordered that Yunusa should be sent back to prison.

    “Ruling is hereby reserved for the 21st of March and suspect is to be remanded in prison custody,’’ he said.

    Speaking outside the courtroom, the defence lawyers insisted that the case was that of a ‘Romeo and Juliet’, adding that the argument that the girl should be shielded during court sessions was untenable.

    ‘’Their reason is that they don’t want publicity for the girl, but our own position is that the matter is already in the public domain. The prosecution created a media nightmare for the girl. They dug the pit, let them wallow in it.

    “Our own contention is that what they are trying to prevent has already occurred. Even the trial started in the media. So they can’t stop what they started,’’ Olaosebikan said.

    During the last court session, Yunusa who was brought in handcuffs admitted impregnating the teenage girl, but pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the five-count charge.

    The police accused Yunusa of conspiring with the duo of Dankano Mohammed and one Mallam AlHassan to ‘abduct, coerce, deceive and sexually assault’ the Delta born Miss Ese Oruru.

    The police alleged that the suspect committed an offence punishable under section 27(a) of the Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.

  •           More on Ese Oruru

              More on Ese Oruru

    The Ese Oruru story took a new hue for me when the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11, called to take objection to my column last week. He spoke in his usual feisty spirit, but with a royal dignity. He sounded offended without being irate, and noted that he did what he ought to have done. That is, he sent a letter to the police AIG and asked the police officer to repatriate the girl to her parents. I asked him if he did that,  why did the AIG not respond? Was it because there was a sort of deference to a system that accommodates a minor marrying an adult? After all, Ese’s mother met an angry village chief and the two parents’ journey up North could have resolved it if the system, including the police in cahoots, did not condone a man marrying an underaged girl.

    But the emir denied that he locked out Ese Oruru’s mother when he presided over a matter on Ese as well as when her father was not allowed to the palace. The parents had recounted their frustrations in reaching the emir, and they have not debunked it.

    The story has run a foul gamut as North versus South, Christian versus Muslim, liberal versus conservative. But it all shows how our sentiments overweigh simple human compassion. Neither faiths condone any form of oppression. And that is what happened to the little girl.

    The other side of the story is the sort of parenting Ese had. It has been said that Rose is not her biological mother, and her classmates have heard her say she wants to return to her real mother in Delta State. We need to probe the facts. Did Yunusa’s pedophile dreams exploit a girl who was an alien in her home?  From the Emir’s words, the girl was probably willing to marry the guy. So when parents fail, they foment national crisis. I would want Ese’s real mother to speak, and Ese’s relationship with others in the Oruru household.

  • Ese Oruru: Yunusa charged with illicit sex

    Ese Oruru: Yunusa charged with illicit sex

    •Judge remands suspect

    Yunusa Dahiru, alias Yellow, who allegedly abducted 14-year-old Ese Oruru from Bayelsa State, converted her to Islam and forcefully married her in Kano, was arraigned yesterday before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital, amid tight security.

    He is being prosecuted on a five-count charge of criminal abduction, Illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful canal knowledge.

    A Special Police Prosecutor, Kenneth Dika, signed the charge sheet.

    The charges, which were read to Yunusa, state : “That Yunusa Dahiru, a male resident in Opolo-Epie area of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, conspired with the duo of Dankano Mohammed and Mallam AlHassan between August 2015 and Febuary 2016 to commit an offence of abduction and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 27(a) of the Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.

    • “That you, Yunusa Dahiru, abducted Ese Oruru by means of coercion, transported and harboured her in Kano State and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 13(2)(b) of the Trafficking in Persons prohibition Enforcement and Administration Act,2015.
    • “That you, Yunusa Dahiru, induced Ese Oruru by the use of deception and coercion to go with you from Yenagoa to Kano State with intent that she be forced or seduced into illicit intercourse and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 15(a) of the Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act,2015
    • “That you, Yunusa Dahiru, procured Ese Oruru and subjected her into sexual exploitation in Kano State and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 16(1) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act,2015.
    • “That you, Yinusa Dahiru, had unlawful canal knowledge of Ese Oruru without her consent and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 357 of the criminal code Act and punishable under section 358 of the Criminal code ACT,Cap.C.38 LAWS OF THE Federation of Nigeria,2004.”

    Yunusa, who wore a yellow Kaftan and brown cap amid heavy security, pleaded not guilty to the charges read to him in pidgin English.

    Efforts by a police interpreter to help the accused with indigenous Hausa Language were resisted by the presiding judge, Justice H.A.Nganjiwa.

    After listening to the police prosecutor and the lawyer to the accused, Kayode Olaosebikan, the judge adjourned the matter till March 14.

    The judge, who said the court’s priority was to hear the case and other related motions, remanded Yunusa in prison custody till the adjourned date to hear a bail application filed by the accused lawyer.

    Olaosebikan described the case as that of two love birds who decided to elope.

    He said: “We have applied for bail and the court will rule on it on the adjourned date. The prosecutor has filed their case. It is easy for the prosecutor to pile up issues, now they have to prove it beyond reasonable doubt.

    “We see the case as that of two love birds. We call it elopatic. It is a case of Yunusa, an 18 years old boy, in love with a 14 years old girl and they agreed to elope.”

  • The Yunusa/Ese saga and media hypocrisy

    The Yunusa/Ese saga and media hypocrisy

    I may be wrong, but I can’t remember any story that has attracted such wide and intense newspaper coverage in the last five years or so as the so-called abduction of an underage Ese Oruru (14) from her native Bayelsa State by a teenage Yunusa Dahiru (18) to his native Kano State. Going through the country’s top seven newspapers – The Punch, Thisday, The Nation, Sun, Daily Trust, Vanguard and The Guardian, not necessarily in that order – I recorded no less than 70 pages of news, comments, interviews and editorials on the story between February 28 and last Monday.

    Not even the marriage of a not-so-young Senator Ahmed Sani, former Governor of Zamfara State and the pioneer of penal Sharia in the country, to an under-age Egyptian girl in Abuja over five years ago, indeed, not even the globally condemned abduction of over 100 girls from Chibok, Borno State, almost two years ago, allegedly by Boko Haram insurgents, has attracted this quantity of newspaper coverage.

    Unfortunately, as is invariably the case anytime we allow sentiments and mischief to get the better of our reasoning, the quantity of the newspaper coverage of the story couldn’t have stood in sharper contrast to its abysmal quality.

    Last Monday our Literature Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, and radical lawyer and Senior Advocate, Femi Falana, addressed a joint press conference on the story, apparently with the intention of  replacing the intense heat the media have generated by their awful coverage with much needed light. Both of them emphatically condemned attempts to characterise the issue as essentially religious. “The attempt to bring religion into the matter,” one newspaper quoted Falana as saying, “is sheer hypocrisy.”

    Soyinka was even more categorical and specific. “Let’s take religion out of this,” The Nation (March 7), said he said. “We are talking about pure criminality and it is my demand, and will always remain my demand, that unless you make an example of people like (Senator Ahmed Sani) Yarima, there would be thousands of Yunusa, the man who abducted Ese.”

    One couldn’t agree more with both Soyinka and Falana. Indeed one can go even further to say the two should have added the attempts to tribalise and regionalise the story while condemning the attempts to drag religion into it. However, while I completely agree with them that we should keep religion out of the matter, I must say it seems to me both of them have the wrong culprits in mind.

    In condemning the attempt at bringing religion into the matter, both of them specifically named Ishaq Akintola as their chief villain. “People like Akintola,” Falana said during the press conference in question, “are playing on the intelligence of the poor.”

    Akintola is a professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a Lagos-based civil society organisation. In an interview in Sunday PUNCH (March 6), the professor said Islam has no age barrier for marriage, implying support of the claim that Yunusa forcibly married Ese. “Non-Muslims,” he said, “should keep off Muslim affairs.”

    It is true that in Islam, as Akintola said, there is no age barrier in marriage. But I am sure the professor would be the first to agree with me that in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country like Nigeria, it is difficult, if not impossible, not to mind your neighbour’s business. As he himself admitted, not all marriages in Nigeria are between two persons of the same faith. Even if his claim that only 0.1% of Muslims marry outside their faith is true – and I suspect it is grossly exaggerated – he would, I am sure, be the first to agree with me that the rights of the 0.1% non-Muslims they marry deserve protection.

    Even then I believe it is grossly unfair to accuse Akintola of bringing religion into the Yunusa/Ese controversy. On the contrary, a complete reading of his Sunday PUNCH interview shows he was totally against doing so. When the episode first broke out, MURIC, as he pointed out, issued a statement that Yunusa should be arrested and prosecuted for abduction because Ese was a minor and a Christian who required her parent’s consent, a condition Sharia says must be met for a marriage to a minor to be valid.

    In any case, the fact, as Akintola pointed out, was that no one in authority in Kano, not the Shari’a Council, not the Emir, not the putative groom’s father, nor others some newspapers have accused of forcing Ese to marry Yunusa, agreed to his request. On the contrary, they all did their bits to see Ese returned home to her parents, something the newspapers would not want to acknowledge because doing so would take the sensationalism out of their stories.

    So instead of attacking Akintola for pointing out the fact that Islam has no age barrier for marriage, Soyinka and Falana should be blaming the prominent politicians (for example, Senator Ben Murray Bruce), the Christian clergy (for example, Reverend Musa Asake, the Secretary-General of Christian Association of Nigeria) and sections of the media that framed the issue as one of a Muslim man stealing a Christian girl and forcing her to change her religion to marry her, instead of looking at it as the criminal matter that it is.

    Probably the chief villain among newspapers in their clearly biased reporting was The PUNCH. “Kano Man,” it trumpeted in the sensational headline of its lead story on February 28, “abducts 14-year old Bayelsa girl, forcefully marries her”! Not only did the newspaper, like many others, convict Yunusa of abduction even before he has had his day in court, they have all echoed the lie that he forced her into marriage when no such thing ever took place.

    It is apparent that what we have here is a case of one standard for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. And as if to expose the hypocrisy of those who first dressed the Yunusa/Ese case in religious and ethnic garbs, about the very day Ese was finally united with her parents, a daring gang of young men invaded a girl seminary in Lagos and allegedly abducted three girls. You would search all the newspapers in vain to know the religious, ethnic or regional identities of the gang members.

    Long before this case, there was that of the daring kidnapping of the wife of Steve Nwosu, the Deputy Managing Director of Sun and one of its ace columnists, from his Lagos residence last year. Throughout their wide coverage of the episode, there was not a word about the religion, region or ethnicity of the suspects. It is not surprising then that his column of March 2 is, at least in my opinion, one of the most sensible things anyone has written about the Yunusa/Ese case, even though I did not completely agree with it.

    “Nobody,” he said halfway through his article, “should go thinking that this malaise is an Islam thing alone. It is not! Many Christian clerics are also into it.”

    The biased framing of the Yunusa/Ese story  by newspapers implied by Nwosu’s accurate observation is not the only worrisome aspect of it. Equally worrisome is the attempt by the newspapers to paint a pattern of Muslims abducting little Christian girls and forcing them into marriage by dredging up cases of such abductions where none existed.

    In its lead story on page 5 of its March 7 edition, for example, The Guardian said a “15-year old Benue girl, Patience Paul, who was abducted since last year and taken to Sokoto, has re-united with her family after the intervention of Governor Aminu Tambuwal and other security agencies.”

    Reading this story you will never know that Patience and her parents have been resident in Sokoto for years instead of in their native Benue State. You will also never know that when she wanted to convert to Islam under the influence of a Muslim girl friend, and because she said she was a victim of child abuse at home, the religious authorities in Sokoto refused to oblige her because they said she did not have her parents’ consent.

    Instead some of the newspapers went as far as to recklessly accuse the urbane Sultan of Sokoto and head of Nigerian Muslims, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, of hiding her in his palace.

    Soyinka and Falana are right to condemn any attempt to bring religion into the Yunusa/Ese saga. But they are wrong to accuse only one side of doing so.

  • Police arraign Yinusa for abducting Ese

    The police on Tuesday arraigned Yinusa Dahiru, the Kano State-born man who abducted the 14-year-old Ese Oruru from Bayelsa State and married her.

    Yinusa was dragged before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

    He was charged with abduction, illicit sex and unlawful canal knowledge among others.

  • Ese Oruru Beyond the shame of a nation

    Ese Oruru Beyond the shame of a nation

    Anyone having a daughter must have felt for Ese Oruru and her parents, seeing the kind of cross the little girl is being forced to carry at a tender age of 14. For seven good months (whatever is good in the months!) this innocent girl was abducted and taken to far away Kano, from her native Bayelsa State. Now, the girl is carrying a pregnancy she must have least bargained for. And to think that some prominent Nigerians were aware of her plight ab initio but did nothing, or did too little to get her out of captivity, only to be speaking in incoherent tunes after the harm had been done! There is God o! The question to ask these people, the most talked-about of them being the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is: would they have handled the matter the way they did if Ese was their daughter?

    One must single out the Emir because of his education and his exposure, considering what he has been able to do for himself in life before becoming Emir. How could anyone in this age and time abduct a 14-year-old girl only to forcibly convert her to Islam and then ‘marry’ her? And all an all-powerful Emir would do is ask that the child be released to her parents without following up on the matter? This is a serious omission on the part of Emir Sanusi that he would need all the angels swearing on his behalf to make any difference.

    What is going round is that such young girls are the lubricants that keep some big men in parts of the country going. Indeed, it is the blood of such innocent girls that these elders use to rejuvenate theirs. Others call it pedophilia but those who are into it see it as a practice welcomed by their culture or religion. But I guess it is more cultural than religious because there are Muslims in other parts of the country and they do not celebrate such ‘weddings’. Whilst it may sound so absurd to many of us who do not understand the basis for such a thing, those whose culture permits it must be surprised at how the rest of us are outraged, with a national newspaper launching a campaign for the girl’s freedom. This should be expected when culture or religion is transported to places where people do not accept such religious or cultural practices.

    Those familiar with the social media said the matter had been trending for quite some time. As a journalist it is good news that it eventually became an issue after it was published by a national daily. That was when panic hit the camps of all those involved and they became jittery, leading to the release of the poor girl last week. Some of the big dramatis personae, including the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, even had cause to say ’em… em…’ after being boxed to inescapable corners over the matter. What this tells us is that the social media cannot be a substitute for the newspaper. Each has its distinct characteristics that cannot be replaced by the other.

    But that was only a digression. Although Yunusa Dahiru (a.k.a. Yellow) is the sole beneficiary of the absurd and regrettable episode; to me, he is but an unknown quantity who nonetheless must have his full comeuppance by the time the full weight of the law is applied on him, to deter others  who might be harbouring the devilish intention of forcibly having their own virgins here and now. If those that mattered had acted expeditiously by telling him in unmistakable terms that he could not do what he did, the man might have thought twice, seeing that he was on his own. What the feeble response of the Emir and others in the matter did was to embolden him. Now, the result! Unless the dramatic happens, Ese’s pregnancy may change her life trajectory for life. This is why these people who have turned little girls barely old enough to be their children or even grandchildren into groundnuts that they can ‘taste’ anyhow deserve to be condemned in the strongest terms.  Ese’s case is that of a baby that would, in the next few months, be tending to another baby, her own baby! Not just a baby-mother; but a forced one at that!

    There are several reasons why Yunusa should be in soup over this matter. First, he took his search for a minor to marry beyond the borders of where such is permissible. May be if he had restricted himself to places where such a practice is allowed, he would have got away with it, or, at best, got a slap on the wrist for his imprudence. Second, his victim is not even a Muslim; so, she could not have understood all the talk of her conversion to Islam, not to talk of marriage without parental consent. Ese might not have witnessed her parents’ wedding, but she must have heard one or two things about how they did it. So, she must have seen the wide world of difference between her parents’ marriage and the one she was initiated into.

    There are useful lessons we all must learn from this sad incident. One is that we should teach our children never to trust strangers. As a matter of fact, with the benefit of hindsight, Ese’s mother (Rose Oruru) too must have realised that we have to be measured even in being nice to people. According to her, she once allowed Yunusa to be sleeping in her shop when she found out that he was homeless. Ordinarily, this would not have been a bad deed; indeed, it is what the scripture enjoins Christians to do: give succour to the distressed and home to the homeless. It only happened that she was nice to the wrong person. Her good nature was what must have given her daughter the confidence that, with Yunusa, she was in safe hands. Even if Ese was hypnotised as the mother claimed, the familiarity between Yunusa and the family must have facilitated that. It is unlikely that the poor girl would have felt so secure in the company of Yunusa if he had not been close to their (Oruru) family.

    I have seen some people describe Ese’s plight as the shame of a nation. It is worse than that. It signposts how far we have gone adrift and lost. How could someone pounce on a 14-year-old girl and think that he has had manna from heaven? What kind of culture or religion approves of such criminality? So, if there had not been an outrage over the matter, Yunusa would still have been keeping the girl under the illusion that she is his wife, while the parents keep agonising over their daughter’s whereabouts. Although Ese has finally reunited with her family, the next stage is to ensure that those who are responsible for her plight are brought to justice. The matter is too grave to be swept under the carpet. If the investigations are thorough, it is unlikely that Yunusa would face his cross alone; all the big men named in the saga must also be made to face the music.

    The IGP was saying the other day that all the policemen found culpable in the saga would be identified and punished. From what is in the public domain, most of the middle-level police officers involved in the matter tried their best. They only gave up when they discovered there were powerful interests involved -interests so powerful that the IGP himself could not untie their shoelaces. But, in all true conscience, does the inspector-general think he too has done well in this matter? Anyway, we are waiting to see how far he can go, first in picking up people involved; and then in ensuring they are prosecuted. We want to see if he too would step down from his high horse, at least pending the completion of investigation on the matter because he is involved and so does not qualify to preside over any such investigation.

    But what seems the most important thing now is to get Ese the proper counselling that would prepare her for the new life she has been forced into. One can only imagine how the girl would be feeling in the midst of her peers, with her protruding tummy. She needs all the attention – medical, psychological – and all so that life does not become miserable for her.

  • The sad case of Ese Oruru

    One of the things that I like about Mr. Donald Trump, the front-runner for the presidential nomination in America’s Republican party, is the fact that he is tough, blunt, honest, candid, frank and decisive.

    Whether you share his views or not at least you know precisely where he stands on any issue and he always speaks his mind. Perhaps that is why he is doing so well against all odds.

    In this short contribution I intend to be very blunt and Trump-like in my approach. I shall write about an issue which, as it does with many others in our nation, stirs me to anger and burdens me with a deep sense of revulsion and shame.

    That I was so ill-fated as to be lumped in the same country as a group of bestial creatures who view pedophilia lightly and who, in some cases, enjoy, encourage and endorse it, simply sickens me.

    Worse still that some of my compatriots will openly defend the abduction of infant girls for the sole purpose of sexual gratification and enslavement and that others will seek to defend it on religious and cultural grounds is a tragedy of monumental proportions.

    To this extent I believe that all those that are attempting to distort the narrative about the tragic plight of Miss Ese Oruru are not only insensitive and irresponsible but they are also evil and I commit them to God’s judgement. The facts of the case are as follows.

    Miss Oruru is 14 years old and not 18 and she was abducted from her home. She did not leave her home freely or of her own volition. She was cruelly and wickedly carried away and stolen from her parents, family and loved ones and forcefully taken by complete strangers to a distant land that she had never been before and that was on the other side of the country.

    This is not a love story about two inseparable young people as some are trying to suggest: it is a story about pedophilia, child abduction, kidnapping, human trafficking, slavery, rape, impunity, wickedness and ritual sex. That little girl has been raped over and over again and she may well have contracted aids, vesico vaginal fistula (VVF) or some other strange sexual disease by now. She may also be pregnant.

    Instead of sympathizing with her and acknowledging the fact that she may never be the same again in view of the physical and mental torture and trauma that she has been subjected to over the last few months, some misguided souls and shameless commentators have had the temerity to say that she was old enough to “get it” and that she ‘’loved it’’ and ‘’wanted it’’.

    I am utterly disgusted by these sentiments. Where is the humanity of those that speak and think like this? Where is their compassion and where is their soul? How would they feel if their own infant daughters were abducted, forcefully Islamised, raped, enslaved and kept against their will as a sex slave in an Emir’s palace in the same way that Ese was? I doubt that it would bring them any joy.

    Quite apart from that we are compelled to ask whether this sort of thing has happened before and how widespread it is? How many other little girls have been stolen from their homes and forced to join harems all over the north?

    The famous high society blogger and respected celebrity journalist Miss Linda Ikeji has just exposed yet another case. This time it is a young 15 year old christian girl, by the name of Miss Patience Paul, who has been abducted from her home, parents and loved ones in Benue state, forcefully taken to Sokoto state, islamised, raped, married off and kept there against her will in the Sultan’s palace.

    The same thing happened to a 13 year old christian Igbo girl by the name of Miss Charity Uzoechina two years ago when she was again abducted, Islamised, raped, married off and forced to remain in the Etsu Nupe’s palace in Minna, Niger state.

    This was despite the fact that her parents went to the police and the local authorities and made every effort to get her back. Sadly up till today they have not seen their daughter since she was taken from them.

    Again there was the case of Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, the former Governor of Zamfara state, who abducted his Egyptian driver’s 12 year old daughter from Egypt, brought her to Nigeria, married her in Abuja and kept her under lock and key in his home in Zamfara.

    The interesting thing to note about this case is the fact that had the Senator tried to marry this girl-child in Egypt where she came from or if he was caught having carnal knowledge of her over there, he would have been arrested, prosecuted and sent to jail. This is because even though Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country, child marriage and pedophilia are completely forbidden and strictly prohibited by the law.

    Yet in multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and supposedly secular Nigeria child sex, child marriage and pedophilia is widespread and common and it appears that anything goes.

    Evidently we live in a strange country where evil is, at best, ignored and swept under the carpet and, at worst, openly justified. We live in a country where those that expose such abominations and that speak truth are shunned, discredited,  demonised, hated, despised and, more often than not, threatened with physical violence, persecution, intimidation, arrest, criminal investigation and civil litigation. That is the price we pay for speaking the truth and exposing evil in Nigeria.

    There is clearly a conspiracy of silence about the perpetuation of wickedness and injustice in this country among the ruling elite. The feeling is that anyone can get away with anything providing they belong to a particular circle and class and providing they have money and power.

    And it is because they have money and power and they have powerful friends in government and in the political class that they feel that they can silence, crush, kill, abduct, cripple, ruin, sue and jail anybody that tests their will and crosses them or that dares to expose the truth about their blood-chilling and perverse ways.

    That is the reality of Nigeria and it is a sad and sorry one. All I can say is thank God for the media and particularly for the Punch newspaper who started the ball rolling last Sunday.

    If not for their cover story about Ese with all those pictures on their front page the little girl would not be free and at home with her family today. Instead she would have still been in slavery and captivity at the Emir of Kano’s palace.

    We should also thank the Nation newspaper particularly for their timely editorial on this issue which was published on 1st March and which raised some pertinent questions and offered wise counsel about the way forward. The Punch, the Nation, AIT, Channels, Tribune, the Sun, Vanguard, Thisday, the Guardian, Leadership and all the other titles and television stations in the Nigerian media and social media has done what no-one else or no other group could do.

    Not even the Federal Government, the state governments, the political parties, the politicians, the security agencies, the lawyers or the so-called human rights groups could achieve what they managed to achieve.

    They have helped to secure the freedom of a helpless and defenseless little girl from slavery, torment, humiliation, destruction, death, disease and bondage and they have brought her home safely to her parents. We need more of this. Kudos to them and God bless them all.

    It would be out of place for me not to mention the fact that the Alhaji Ishaq Akintola-led MURIC, a leading Yoruba Muslim organisation, has condemned the actions of those that abducted Miss Oruru. This is a step in the right direction. It is commendable and it will foster a greater and better understanding between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

    Finally it is my prayer that the Lord silences and shames those that chose to remain silent and that have opted to look the other way during the course of this whole sordid affair. Nigeria is not a nation of heartless pedophiles and godless reprobates and neither shall we sit by silently and allow her to be turned into one.

    We are a God-fearing, kind, compassionate, humane, hardworking, faithful, decent, long-suffering and resilient people and together, whether they like it or not, we shall expose the sexual deviants and perverts in our midst. We shall name them and shame them before the entire world.

    We shall shine the light of God in this nation and we shall deliver our land from the evil.clutches and darkness of sexual predators, perversion, cruelty and impunity. The Holy Bible says that “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel”. Sadly, perhaps more than any other,  the case of Miss Ese Oruru confirms the veracity of this deeply profound scripture.

    Permit me to end this contribution with the following words because they are prophetic. O ye sons of Futa Jalo and ye daughters of the Vulture mountains and bitter waters: your princes and kings shall be exposed and brought to heel and you shall pay a heavy price for your wickedness and sorcery.

    May the Ancient of Days heal Miss Ese Oruru and may the Lord God of Hosts deliver her from the incantations, enchantments, witchcraft and spells of those that abducted her and kept her under lock and key in the satanic palace and dark shrine of a strange and foreign king.

  • Ese Oruru: We will stop further abduction for marriage —Arewa youths

    The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum ( AYCF)  has vowed to  stop further  abduction for marriage in the region.

    The group made the remark in reaction to the public outcry generated by the abduction of  Ese Oruru, a 14-year-old  girl by 25-year- old Inuwa Dahiru Bala (otherwise known as Yunusa) from Bayelsa State to Kano State.

    The AYCF  said perpetrators of such crimes should be made to face the full wrath of the law.

    In a telephone chat with The Nation, Comrade Shetima Yerima, the president of  the group said: “The issue has been politicized with many people saying different things.  Despite this, the action is immoral. No parent would ever be happy to have an underage child taken away in that manner.  Our attention has been drawn to the incident and we have taken it up as one of our projects to begin massive sensitization of people in our region against this kind of thing. We condemn it and stand to say that whoever does such should face the full wrath of the law. “

    Islamic clerics have however described the abductor’s action as an unislamic practice.

    One of the clerics, Imam Abdullahi Shuaib, Lagos Cordinator Conference of Islamic  Organisation described such position as unfortunate, saying: “ It is unfortunate because a number of Nigerians  don’t understand the position of Islam on an issue like this. Islam does not encourage such thing.  The action is criminal and never an Islamic agenda. It also shows the gravity of moral loss in the society. Having a conjugal relationship with a minor is a sin against God, humanity and the society at large.  We need to do a damage contro here by getting medical experts to assist the girl to carry the pregnancy safely.”

    His position was corroborated by  Dr Luqman Abdurraheem, National Amir of  The Muslim Congress (TMC) . he said: “ In Islam, abduction is illegal. To now abduct  and marry the victim is a higher illegality. The authorities in Kano ought to report the matter to the police. They claimed that they did but I doubt it.  The man’s action is very wrong. It paints a bad picture of Muslims in that part of the country. To marry in Islam, you must get the consent of the parents.  You cannot claim to have married any woman when you don’t have the consent of the parents. “

    The incident in the view of Dr Tajudeen Yusuf, a senior lecturer at University of Lagos State is getting too much attention than it deserves.  “ I don’t think the attention we ae giving this issue is worth it.  Yinusa’s action cannot and should not be associated with Islam. It should also not be seen as a cultural thing.  Anybody could have done it.

    “What were the parents when she was taken away. How soon did they become aware that she was missing and did they report to the police? It is a messy affair. I will reprimand the parents for keeping quiet all along. Yinusa on his part is a criminal,” he stated.

      On his part, Mallam Saheed Ashafa, the  Amir, Muslim Students Society  of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State area unit opined that the truth about the story has not really been unraveled.  “There is so much discrepancy from what all the parties concerned are saying. Consequently, it is not proper for one to pronounce judgment on any of them.

    But if we are to take it from the face value, the action of Yinusa is wrong. Appropriate sanction should be meted out to him. The youths have a lot of lessons to learn from the incident.  It reinforces the need for every young man to follow due process in issues of marriage.

    “ It is wrong to force somebody to marry you. It is ethically and morally wrong. Parents too also have good lessons to learn from it because Ese’s  parents from all indication are guilty of negligence for the child to have gone out without their knowledge.”

  • Reps to review domestication of Child Rights Act 

    Reps to review domestication of Child Rights Act 

    Bayelsa State caucus in the House of Representatives has said the full weight of the law must be applied on all those involved in the abduction14 year old Ese Orusu from Bayelsa State.

    Diri Duoye, Sodaguno Festus-Omoni and Fred Agbedi said they are determined to work with other lawmakers and stakeholders in the review and domestication of the Child Rights Act.

    According to Diri Duoye, Sodaguno Festus-Omoni and Fred Agbedi, who condemned the action of the abductor, Yunusa and his accomplices, the full weight of the law must be applied on all those involved in the abduction.

    According to Diri Duoye, the caucus was not aware of the case until it was brought into the public knowledge by the media and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) but  swung into action that culminated in the eventual  release of the girl to her parent by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase.

    He said: “We just came back from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase.

    “We were still in his office when it was confirmed to him (IGP) over the phone that his men have arrived at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport,  Abuja with the girl and her parent on their way to Bayelsa.

    “We were told by the IGP that the abductor is already in police custody.

    “We condemn the kidnap and seek for justice for all those connected with it.”

    While commending the efforts of the media and the Civil Society Organizations (CSO), the caucus said it is determined to work with all stakeholders towards a review and domestication of the Child Rights Act by States.

    According to the caucus, implementation of laws should be the focus as it remains the most effective tool for deterring people from acts of criminality.

    The caucus also appealed to the Federal government and security agencies to address kidnappings in Bayelsa State.

    The lawmakers said kidnap has become almost a daily occurrence in the State with its attendant negative consequences.

  • Dickson meets Ese’s family behind closed- door

    Dickson meets Ese’s family behind closed- door

    The Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, on Thursday met with the family of Ese Oruru, behind closed doors at the Government House, Yenagoa.

    The governor, who spoke after the meeting, said he had set up a medical team comprising psychologists to facilitate the girl’s recovery.

    Dickson hailed the media and civil society groups for their efforts in securing the freedom of Ese, adding that his government would support the family at this critical time.

    He said: “I told the family that it could have been worse because their daughter may have disappeared forever.

    “This matter has to do with enforcement of the laws of the state. Everything has to be done to protect the girl child, like Ese’s case has shown.”

    “This is not a religious matter, but the right of a young girl to grow up with her parents.

    “I want to use the opportunity to assure all that the police and the directorate of public prosecution are working to ensure that this matter is pursued to its logical conclusions.

    “There are questions begging for answers. How come adults who see a minor in far away Kano did not deem it right to return such minor to the lawful custody of her parents?

    “We want to know who could have saved this situation but did not.

    “We have set up a team that includes medical psychologists and others. We are ready to support and stand by Ese, not just now but in the days, months and years ahead.”