Notwithstanding that the Child Rights Act was passed in Nigeria in 2003, people blatantly disregarding the legislation abounds
.
However, the
ongoing victory being recorded in the case of Ese Oruru, a 14-year-old girl who was taken from Bayelsa to Kano to be forcibly joined to one Yinusa Dahiru in marriage has encouraged many others with the same plights to speak up.
Mr. Siman Guje, from Guyuk LGA of Adamawa State is an example. He is currently begging Nigerians to stand up for his 19-year-old daughter, Blessing Nyimjir Siman who was abducted in 2010, when she was only 14 and forcibly joined in marriage with one Bilhadi Yakuba alias Dan Daura, her kidnapper.
According to Guje, the abduction was in connivance with the Chief Judge of Kuje Upper Area Court and Police Authorities who exhibited lackadaisical attitude towards his plight.
Like in the case of Ese, Blessing, then a JSS2 student of FHA Junior Secondary School Lugbe, Abuja was converted from Christianity to Islam and was renamed Kadijat by her abductors.
Guje said, “At height of the matter, to ensure the girl is kept as far away as possible from Yakuba, I took her to her grandparents in Adamawa State but because she was hypnotised by the abductor, somehow he traced her to Adamawa and brought he back to Lugbe.
It was after retrieving the girl from Adamawa that Guje was summoned by a Chief Imam who informed him that Yakuba wanted his daughter’s hand in marriage and also wishes to Islamise her.
Guje said he reported the matter at the Lugbe Police Station, but the Police became helpless in the matter after the abductor got the Kuje Upper Area Court to work in his favour.
According to Guje, the Judge who was the abductors kinsman ordered the arrest of the girl’s father and five other relatives who accompanied him to Court.
They were incarcerated at the Court premises, the girl and her abductors, who is from Katsina State, left Abuja unchallenged.
Since October 2010 Guje and his family have not been allowed access to Blessing.
All attempts made to get help from Human Rights Commission and the Nigeria Police Force proved abortive.
“Imagine the mental torture and trauma of not seeing your child for years and waking up every morning to the fact that your daughter is in the hands of wicked people,” Guje said.
Guje is appealing to volunteers, Girl Child NGOs and others to help him get his daughter back. Blessings father can be contacted on Telephone No:- +2348080996352 or +2347036012011
