Even now that the 14-year old Ese Oruru who was abducted from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and taken to Kano is now free; and even now that the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase has said her abductor, identified as Yinusa Dahiru (aka Yellow), would be prosecuted, her seven month ordeal clearly shows a further decline to the lowest level imaginable, of an already devalued values system in the country. Her abductor and tormentor, who married her by force; converted her to Islam, and pregnant her, is simply a despicable character and should be so treated upon conviction. By any streak of the imagination, Yinusa’s odious action debased age, trampled on morality, rubbished decency, cheapened Nigeria and assaulted humanity. For Ese and her family, especially her parents, it has been a harrowing experience only better imagined. To the eternal embarrassment of this nation, the incident remains a most traumatic advertisement of the plight of the Nigerian girl-child and another open sore with its indelible imprint of guilt on the national psyche. Either way, it is an untold national shame.
No one should fail to notice in this entire saga, how Nigeria and its many ugly contradictions were again, pitifully on display. Ese is a living symbol of the assault on the integrity of the girl child. Abducted by a man who was well-known to her family, the story got colored by the politics of identity, ethnicity and religion. Yinusa was from Kano, and this opened religious fault lines and the much vexed North-South cultural divide: a Northern Muslim man abducting a Southern Christian girl and turning her into a sex slave and forcefully converting her to Islam is a recipe for controversy and anger! This saga, and the shoddy reaction by the dramatis personae involved, is one of the most odious image-battering events in Nigeria’s recent history. It should spur an examination of conscience in every concerned person. And this is why the Emir of Kano and the various government agencies, which were in a position to make a difference when it mattered most in the case, and failed to act, did the entire country a disservice.
The role of the Emir of Kano in the matter is indeed shocking. According to the police, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, had indeed directed that the abducted girl be returned to her parents in Bayelsa, as far back as August 2015. But the immediate aftermath of the Emir’s directive typified by inaction and bureaucratic vacillation created a negligence and insensitivity that beggars belief. The sad and annoying part is that there was no follow up to the Emir’s order, leaving Ese at the hands of her abductor who turned her into a sex slave.
With the diminishing public image of the Emir of Kano over the incident, neither the Kano Emirate officials nor the Kano police are entirely blameless. Since they were so emotionally disconnected from the girl’s predicament that they could not even feign concern; the question to be asked is whether they would have acted in the same way if Ese was their own daughter; or the daughter of the president, vice president, senate president, any governor, legislator or a minister? Whatever caused the police to turn a blind eye to their primary responsibility of protecting lives and property, this was a clear dereliction of duty, for which they should be held accountable.
But as Nigerians were grappling with Ese’s story, another group of criminals stormed the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary school, Ikorodu, Lagos and abducted three girls. As if that was not shocking enough, there is this other report about Blessing Nyimjir Siman from Guyuk LGA of Adamawa, who was abducted in 2010, when she was just 14 and forced into marriage with her kidnapper; one Bilhadi Yakuba alias Dan Daura. Her father blames the justice and police authorities who refused to intervene to save the girl; living in bondage since 2010. There is also a 15-year old Benue girl, Patience Paul, abducted by her neighbors and married off to a certain Sarkin Musulmi in Sokoto. Patience’s brother, like Blessing’s father are now speaking out, obviously motivated by the Ese story.
There is no way to ascertain the number of under-aged girls like Ese who have been so kidnapped, and forced into marriages where they become sex slaves, but the list is believed to be very long. The sanity and moral compass of a society should be measured by the manner in which it treats its most vulnerable members. It is instructive that the girls that end up being kidnapped and abused are usually from poor backgrounds. It is shocking to say the least, and it stretches credulity that some persons, carried away by misguided religious and ethnic prejudices, chose to justify this madness of child brides. The girl child is a child, not a bride, let alone a sex slave: she deserves her rights to human dignity. Against the background of the abduction of 219 Chibok girls in 2014, Nigeria has now cemented its strong credentials in the eyes of the world as a large den of sexual predators, who are obsessed with young, under-aged girls.
Ese is a living metaphor of the missing Chibok girls; she could have been one of them! That the Chibok girls are Nigeria’s daughters, their continued disappearance and unknown circumstances mirror the possibility of any Nigerian child being in that situation. Therefore, the painful suspense of their condition should worry all; their unexplainable absence should trouble all, and the pain and unimaginable sorrow of their parents and family should feel all Nigerians with anguish. That the authorities are, as of yet, clueless about their whereabouts, should frighten all.
The Chibok girls and the many Ese Orurus out there should haunt every Nigerian who is a historical witness to this assault on young girls, and an embarrassment to Nigeria’s international image. Every abducted girl in Nigeria should be an open sore on the memories of the ruling elite in such a way that, in their own living children and grandchildren, they would see a potential Ese Oruru. Her ordeal is an insult not only to her person, but to all that is good in the society. Indeed, the kidnapping of anybody is an assault on humanity’s collective decency.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has recommended castration as punishment in this kind of context, but castration not being part of Nigeria’s extant criminal jurisprudence; there is more than enough in existing laws and statutes to put Yinusa behind bars for life, to deter others like him. He should be tried expeditiously and a proper closure put to this particular case. His accomplices if any, no matter who they are, should also be identified and made to face the full wrath of the law. If the federal government, the state governments, public spirited Nigerians and well-meaning international bodies do not successfully address this situation, another moral challenge and albatross of socio-economic dimension may well be leading Nigeria down the road to perdition.
SAVE Blessing Nyimijir Siman From This Paedophile Called Ilhadi Yakuba alias Dan Daura
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
