Charles Oruru, father of the 14-year-old Ese, who was allegedly abducted and forcefully married by Kano-born Yunusa Dahiru (aka Yellow), has said he has no child outside wedlock.
Mr Oruru, who spoke in his Opolo home in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, told our reporter that his family would not terminate Ese’s pregnancy.
The police are prosecuting Yunusa at a Federal High Court in Yenagoa, on five counts of abduction, illicit sex and unlawful carnal knowledge, among others.
Oruru, who said the family was delighted that the case had gone to court, said Ese’s pregnancy was of primary concern to the family.
He said: “We are not going to tamper with her pregnancy because that is my grandchild. I have instructed my wife to take care of that pregnancy. Whatever child Ese is carrying will be a great child. The child will one day become the President of this country.”
Oruru blasted those doubting that his wife, Rose, is Ese’s biological mother.
He described them as mischief makers.
There were insinuations in some quarters that Ese was Oruru’s love child and that her biological mother lived in Delta State.
Others even claimed that Ese once nursed the idea of running away from home to live with her mother before she escaped with Yunusa to Kano.
But some of the Orurus’ neighbours debunked the insinuations, insisting that Ese is among Rose’s favourite daughters.
A neighbour, who spoke in confidence, said: “Ese was close to her mother. She was always the one helping her mother in her canteen; maybe that was what exposed her to the Hausa, including Yunusa, who came there to eat.
“I consider her the kind of child who believes her mother is suffering and does everything possible to help her. Before going to school, she would come to the canteen and return after school hours because that is where they always eat their food.”
Asked about the controversy on Ese’s mother, Oruru said Rose gave birth to all his children.
He said he never kept another woman outside wedlock, adding that Rose was pregnant with Ese when he married her traditionally.
Brandishing a picture of her expectant wife during their traditional marriage, he said: “Ese was born around 2002, after my traditional marriage to my wife on December 28, 2001. My wife was heavily pregnant during the traditional wedding.
“Ese was born at home because the labour started late at night – around 1am – and there was no means of transportation to take us to hospital. So, my wife asked me to hold her, that she would deliver inside our house.
“Moreover, my wife was a trained nurse and she worked in Lagos for so many years. So, Ese was delivered without even our neighbours knowing about it. It was not until they heard the cry of a baby in the morning they got to know about it. That was when we were staying at Yenezuegene-Epie. Our last born, a boy, was born in 2005.”
Oruru narrated how Rose gave birth to all his children.
He said: “My first daughter, Patricia, was born on October 14, 1991. The second daughter was born in Lagos in 1993; we later lost her. So, you see we normally gave a gap of two years among our children.
“We came back to Ughelli, Delta State, in 1996. On March 3, 1997, my wife gave birth to another baby girl; we named her Faith. Onome was born in 1999, that is two years later.
“I am not in women’s business; I don’t know how to do that. I have no child outside wedlock. People can say whatever they like.
“We gave our children the best of training. If my wife was maltreating Ese and she disappeared because of that, how would she be the same person crying and going all over the place to find her?”
Oruru warned that the abduction case should not drag for a long time, adding that many minors had disappeared the same way as his daughter.
He said: “My family is happy about everything. Right from Abuja, they pulled the hijab she wore. Ese was even telling my wife that she would tear it, but I told my wife to keep it as an evidence. We bought clothes for her. She is happy now.
“I am happy and grateful. I needed my daughter back and God brought her back. I am not the owner of the children; I am only a caretaker.
“If it was God that took her, it would have meant that God took her. But for this one – someone just came and took away my daughter in broad daylight – it shouldn’t have happened that way.”
