Ese & Yunusa affair: The untold story
By Yusha’u A. Ibrahim, Kano | Publish Date: Mar 5 2016 5:00AMThe story of Yunusa ‘Yellow’ Dahiru and Ese Charles Oruru can best be described as a version of the famous Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, whose title characters fall in love against the wishes of their families. But with all the furore it is generating nationwide, is theirs a story of abduction or star-crossed lovers innocently eloping? Daily Trust takes a look.
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Ese Charles Oruru
I consider Ese my own daughter – Yunusa’s father
Ese’s dad told us she’s 18 – Kano Hisbah
‘My son isn’t a kidnapper’
Ese, Yunusa never got married – Investigation

Yunusa and Ese, now famous around the country because of their relationship, fell in love against the wishes of their parents, findings by Daily Trust revealed. The twenty-five-year-old tricycle rider hails from Tofar-Danga village in Kura local government area of Kano State while Ese, 14, is from Yenagoa local government of Bayelsa State. ‘Yellow’, as the young man is popularly called, is a frequent traveller to Yenagoa, and is a popular water vendor in the Opolo area of the state capital before he became a tricycle rider.





As a water vendor, he supplies water to various people in the area including the family of Mr. Charles Oruru, whose wife Madam Rose, sells food in the area. Thus, he also supplies water to Madam Rose’s food shack daily. He also lives in the same area with the Oruru family, in a make-shift hut with his friends. He worked like a domestic help in Mr. Oruru’s house for many years before he switched occupations and became a tricycle rider.
Even after that, Daily Trust learnt, Yellow related closely with Oruru’s children. One of them, Ese, who always helps her mother selling food, normally serves Yellow with food whenever he visits. Sometimes, she even takes the food to his hut, it was gathered. Their closeness therefore resulted in a love affair, which is currently a national issue of sorts.
When the two, smitten by each other, declared their intention to become a married couple, their parents objected. However, sometime in August last year, they planned to elope, leaving Bayelsa to Kano, with the intention to actualize their dream of becoming husband and wife. But despite the ongoing outrage, Daily Trust findings in Kura, Tofar-Danga, Kano emirate, office of the Police Assistant Inspector General Zone 1 and Kano State Shari’ah commission, indicated that no marriage has been contracted between the two, either in a mosque or a church.
Yunusa’s father, Alhaji Dahiru Bala, explained that earlier before Ese was brought to Tofar-Danga, his son informed him about his intention to marry her, but he opposed the idea. “I warned him not to marry her. In fact, I forced him to stop going to Bayelsa, just to spoil his plan of marrying the girl.”
However, he said, three months later his son approached him again, requesting that he wanted to go to Bayelsa. Thinking that the marriage issue will not resurface again, he permitted Yunusa to go to Bayelsa.”
Yunusa’s dad also asked the young man’s mother to search for a nice girl for him, and eventually she got one in the village. “In fact, our plan was to contract the marriage this year but suddenly Yunusa brought Ese, sometime in August last year with intention to marry her. Initially, I objected, but the girl pleaded with me. I had to change my decision to save her life because of her desperation about my son. You know in this kind of situation, only God knows what will happen if at that time I insist that she will not marry him. However, that same night they arrived the village, I directed my son to report to the Village Head and he did.”
Alhaji Bala also recalled that the girl had spent three days in the village, Tofar-Danga. “She stayed with Yunusa’s mother, whom she considers her mother, too. She loves each and every member of my family. To be honest with you, I also consider her my own daughter.”
Asked whether Yunusa actually married Ese, Alhaji Bala said to the best of his knowledge no-one has married the duo. “The only thing I know is that the girl was converted to Islam by the Chief Imam of Kura local government after she declared interest.” He said his son has never been a criminal for him to abduct the girl, noting that his son worked for Ese’s parents for many years in Bayelsa State. He also said Ese’s parents knew Yunusa for the past 10 years, as well as everything about his relationship with their daughter.
Alhaji Bala said his son believes in earning an honest living, just as he raised him to, and that was why he has been travelling to the Southern part of the country to conduct his business. He also expressed delight at Ese’s reunion with her family, even as he appealed to police authorities to release his son.
Daily Trust also gathered that Ese’s parents traced the whereabouts of their daughter to Kano and followed her to Tofar-Danga village in Kura LG where they met her. However, she refused to follow them to Bayelsa. Having realized that Yunusa’s father and Ese’s parents went back to the District Head, who at that time sent them to the Hisbah office in Kura local government. They were finally taken to Kano State Hisbah Board headquarters where they met with the Commander-General Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa over the matter.
At Hisbah office in Kura town, an official of Hisbah, who craved for anonymity because he was not authorized, said the case was reported by the District Head of Kura, Alhaji Bello Ado Bayero, through the ward head of Kunshama. The District Head asked Hisbah to investigate the case. “After we heard that the intention of the girl was to convert to Islam and at the same time marry Yunusa, we then transferred the case to our headquarters for necessary action.” The girl lived under the custody of the District Head’s aide, one Malam Muqaddas Kura, for almost six months during her stay in Kura town, Daily Trust gathered.
According to Muhamad Sani, Yunusa relocated to Kura town because of Ese, after he learnt that she was in custody of the District Head’s aide. “The girl was entrusted to Maqaddas by the Kano State Shari’ah Commission after the case was transferred to the commission from the emirate council. During her stay with Muqaddas, Ese’s mother came to Kura to take her daughter home, but she refused to follow her,” he recalled.
When efforts to take Ese home proved abortive, the girl’s mother left for Bayelsa, only for the issue to resurface, the source said.
Yunusa’s friend, Garba Yakubu, said: “Contrary to speculation, Ese followed Yunusa to Kura willingly. In fact she paid her transport fare herself. Yunusa also informed me that he did all he could to convince the girl to stay with her family but she refused because she loves him so much. Up till when they both embarked on a trip to Kano, Yunusa was not certain whether the girl was serious about her decision to follow him.” He said Ese lived peacefully with people, and was able to learn the Hausa language during her stay in Kura town. “She is easy-going and within that short time she acquainted herself with our wives, whom she respects a lot,” he said.
Yakubu also said during Yunusa’s stay in Kura, he engaged in small-scale business because he is the type of person who doesn’t believe in sitting idle.
Also, Commander General of Kano State Hisbah Board, Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, said the issue was politicized, noting that “Yunusa neither abducted Ese nor did he hide her.” He said: “When he brought her to Kano, he reported the case to his parents who in turn took the case to the authorities concerned, including the Hisbah office. When we received the case, Ese, Yunusa, and their parents were all invited by the board. When she first declared her intention to convert to Islam, we asked about her age, and she said she was 18. We therefore sent her to court, from where she got age declaration. We also invited her parents and informed them about her intention to accept Islam. Initially, they objected her plan but later her father succumbed and allowed her to accept the religion she chooses. Her father also confirmed to us that the girl was 18 and therefore he has every right to practice any religion she wants.”
“Nobody forced Ese to embrace Islam. She accepted out of her own volition and at 18 she has every right to practice religion of her choice,” Daurawa said. The Hisbah boss also said only a court can resolve the complications surrounding the case, but as far as the Hisbah Board was concerned, due process was followed in Ese’s conversion to Islam. He also confirmed that the board has never contracted marriage between Yunusa and Ese.
Ese’s case was reported to the palace by the District Head of Kura, Alhaji Bello Ado Bayero. The palace, on its part, wrote a letter to Kano State Shari’ah Commission directing it to liaise with then-Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 1, Muhammad Tambari Yabo to investigate and recommend action.
A copy of the emir’s letter to the Shari’ah Commission, obtained by Daily Trust, reads in part: “I am directed to draw your attention that Aisha Charles was recently converted to Islam through the Chief Imam of Kura local government and God so kind one Malam Yunusa Dahiru intends to marry her as agreement was reached between the two of them. In view of the foregoing, His Highness the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi ll is directing your good office to investigate the issue,” concluded the letter, signed by Hamisu Garba Disu on behalf of Secretary of the Kano Emirate Council.
Reacting on the issue, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, exonerated himself and the emirate council from the purported ‘abduction’ of the girl. He said he had since September last year directed Kano State Shari’ah Commission and the office of Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 1, to commence process of reuniting the girl with her family.
The emir, who spoke through his senior council member, Walin Kano, Alhaji Mahe Bashir Wali, said “Aisha Charles was sent to the emir’s court by the District Head of Kura, along with the village head and a man named Yunusa. The district head reported that he had received a report from the village head that the young girl from Bayelsa State, Ese Oruru had followed Yunusa to his village and accepted the Islamic faith at the hands of the Imam of Kura, and that Yunusa had brought her home to marry her as she was afraid of being killed by her mother for converting to Islam.”
Wali added that the emir, upon reviewing the report, referred the case to the Shari’a Commission for investigation and the commission in its report dated September 7, 2015 recommended that the girl be returned to her family since she was not up to 18. “The girl has not yet reached age where she could take decisions attributed to her without the approval of her parents. Therefore the girl should be handed over to the AIG in charge of Bayelsa State for onward return to her family,” he said.
The Walin Kano said the young girl was duly handed over to the AIG as instructed by the emir since September last year, and until the recent furore there has been no indication that the directive of the emir was not carried out, and at no time was the young girl in the custody of the emir or any official of the emirate council. The emirate therefore called on media and members of the public to always make inquiries and cross-check facts before rushing to spread false rumours that may endanger peace.
Daily Trust Saturday learnt that the Shari’ah commission on its part investigated the matter and reported back to the office of the AIG Zone 1 as required by the emir. The commission presented the letter to the AIG’s office on September 9, 2015. The commission, in its letter to the Police AIG, recommended that the girl be taken back to her parents to take good care of her, subject to four conditions. The conditions, according to the letter, a copy obtained by our correspondent include; one, the parent should continue to take good care of the girl without any threat to her life or causing any grievous harm to her being a Muslim and two, the girl should be allowed to practice Islam freely without any interruption or hatred.
The third condition was that the girl should be under the care and supervision of the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Bayelsa State and fourth was that the people arrested by the police concerning the issue should be released and allowed to continue with their lives, freely.
According to the Director of Islamic propagation of the commission, Alhaji Abdulgaffar Uba Kabara, the commission had done its own part as far as the matter involving the girl was concerned. “The commission was directed by the Kano Emirate Council to investigate the matter and we have done that. The commission has written to the police AIG Zne 1 and had equally followed up the case on several occasions.”
Daily Trust learnt that since the case was reported to the AIG’s office by the Shari’ah commission, police did not take significant action until Monday, February 29, when armed policemen stormed the premises of Shari’ah Commission and arrested Ese, Yunusa and some officials of the commission on the orders of the AIG Zone 1, Shu’aibu Lawal. A source at the zone headquarters, who craved for anonymity, told Daily Trust that the action was an order from the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase. Also, on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Ese and Yunusa were moved to Abuja on the order of the IGP.
The AIG Zone 1, Shu’aibu Lawal, on Thursday said sometime in September 2015 a delegation from Kano Emirate Council and the State Sharia Commission, submitted a letter from the emir directing the police to reunite Oruru with her parents. “However, when they arrived here, it was already late in the evening, so both parties agreed to return the next morning to hand over the girl. But when they could not return the following morning, police assumed that the State Sharia Commission was able to resolve the matter. That was what we knew of the case, until last Sunday when the media broke the news that the girl was still in custody of Kano Emirate Council and Yunusa.”
“When we learnt that Oruru was still in Kano, our men swung into action and the girl and her lover were taken into police custody on Monday after they were arrested in Kura town,” he said, adding that the police should have followed up the case, but bearing in mind that the Shari’ah Commission was authorized by law to handle such matters, the police concluded that the matter was settled amicably.
On the alleged five months pregnancy, AIG Gambo said the medical examination was conducted in Abuja, therefore only the Force Headquarters can ascertain that. He added that Yunusa will be prosecuted before court of law for criminal charge of abduction, because the girl in question is still a minor, as such the case cannot be treated as elopement.
But the Director of Islamic Propagation disputed the claims, saying the commission had followed up the case severally. He said: “I have gone to the AIG’s office on this matter many times but I was denied access to him. In fact, I and my DG also went to the AIG but we were not allowed to see him. There was a time I went there and after spending several hours I was told that Tambari will travel to Abuja, and I insisted on seeing him so I ended up joining his convoy and I waited outside a bank till he came out and we discussed. He said when he comes back, he will invite me but I did not hear from him until last Monday when some armed police men stormed the commission and arrested us.”
Daily Trust reliably gathered that the girl was impregnated by a yet-to-be-identified person. It was gathered the girl exposed her pregnancy to a lady at the AIG’s office the very day she was brought there from the Shari’ah commission. However, the source said: “She did not tell me who is responsible and I don’t know how far along she is. Even before her confession, I noticed that from her behaviour during in my first encounter with her.”
Meanwhile, a human rights activist, Barrister Huwaila Muhammad Ibrahim said in Kano that contrary to speculation, the girl willingly embraced Islam. “From my conversation with the girl, Yunusa never abducted her from Bayelsa. She willingly followed him to Kano and she confessed that she wanted to marry him. Yunusa should not be punished for bringing the girl to Kano because she followed him willingly. He did not force her,” she said.
Barr. Huwaila assured that human rights monitors will continue to follow the case until justice is done to all parties involved. “We are on the case to ensure that justice is done to both Yunusa and Ese,” she said.
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/ese-yunusa-affair-the-untold-story/136632.html#uJcOL84iAAcmrYhR.99

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So many loose ends...

I knew there was more to this story than the ones told. Women can be very cunning. Look at how she denied ever loving the so called buy. Something they both planned on doing now turned out to be one person abducted on person. Hmm. God help us.

This sounds like a better version of the story to me

But that guy will still have to go to jail

The fact still remains that she is a minor, at the age of 14, She was still accountable to her parents. Being taking to kano without the consent of her parents amount to abduction and he needs to be prosecuted for that