Ese Oruru & The Conviction of Yunusa Dahiru: Are Christian girls endangered species in the North?
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Miss Ese Oruru, you remember her? Sure you do.

For the benefit of those who may not know her, Ese Oruru is a Christian girl of 13 years old as at 2015. Though a native of Delta state, she resides with her parents in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state. Ese’s mom is a food vendor and her daughter, Ese helps her to sell food to customers after school hours.

Sometime in August 2015, it was widely reported that Ese was kidnapped by one of her mom’s customers, a Muslim man named Yunusa Dahiru. Yunusa Dahiru resides in Bayelsa but hails from Tufa village in Kano.

Facts have it that Yunusa a tricycle rider befriended the young Ese at her mom’s shop, had sex with her and secretly took her to far away Kano state where he had her converted to Islam and married her. Ese upon her conversion to Islam was renamed Aisha. It was reported that Ese’s wedding to Yunusa took place at the palace of the deposed Emir of Kano, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

The abduction, conversion and marriage of Ese to Yunusa were all concluded in a space of thirty-six (36) hours. Meanwhile Ese’s parents were already looking for their daughter in Yenagoa and had declared her missing.

Luck smiled on Ese's parents when they got the information from one of Yunusa’s friends that their daughter is now a married muslim woman living in Kano with Yunusa. Pronto, Ese’s mom boarded the next available vehicle going to Kano and went searching for her daughter. She first went to Yunusa’s village – Tufa where she met the village chief who informed her that her daughter is still at the wedding venue in the custody of the Emir. Immediately she set for the Emir’s palace. On getting to the Emir’s palace, she identified herself as the mother of the ‘newest bride in town’ whose wedding was just conducted. Despite this, she was denied entrance to the palace to see her daughter or the Emir.

She went and made a report at the Kwani Police station, Kano. Despite the report, Ese was not released to her mom rather the Police told Ese’s mom to go back to Yenagoa, Bayelsa state and lodge her complaint there.

At this juncture, Ese’s mom knew that unless she does something drastic, her daughter is gone for good as she has been informed by one of the prominent officials of the Kano Emirate council that Ese is now a convert of Islam and if brought to her, she (the mother) would not be able to talk or touch her else either she or Ese would die. She was then advised by the officials to approach the Sharia court to ventilate her grievances.

She instead went back home to Yenagoa. She and her husband got the matter formally reported at the Bayelsa State Police command; they also reported the matter to prominent local and international civil rights organizations including the Punch Newspapers, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the then governor of Bayelsa state, Mr Seriake Dickson.

As a result of the massive campaigns launched by these organizations against the Kano Emirate Council, Ese who was now heavily pregnant with Yunusa’s child was reunited with her parents in March 2016. This was seven months after her abduction, forced conversion and forced marriage.

Shortly thereafter, the Police had Yunusa Dahiru arrested and arraigned at the Federal High Court, Yenagoa on a five counts charge of abduction, child trafficking, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge. The first four counts are offences provided and punishable under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 while the last count was provided and punishable under the Criminal Code Act of 2004

Yunusa pleaded not guilty to the charges and trial was commenced. After trial, the court acquitted him of the first count charge of abduction but found him guilty of the remaining four counts charge of child trafficking, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge. He was consequently convicted and sentenced to twenty-six (26) years in prison. It was reported that as he was being led out of the courtroom after his conviction, he spoke out that he was treated this way because “he is a Muslim.”

It is important to note that the judge did not impose the maximum weight of the punishment as prescribed by the law in sentencing Yunusa Dahiru. Among other offences that Yunusa was charged with and convicted upon is the offence of violation of Section 357 of the Criminal Code Act which is punishable under Section 358 of the same Act. That law provides summarily that “any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl without her consent or with her consent if the consent is obtained by force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband, is guilty of the offence of rape and is liable to imprisonment for life, with or without caning”. Despite the prescribed punishment of life imprisonment for any convicted offender, the federal high court judge handed Yunusa a seven year jail term for that count.

It has been observed that since the delivery of this judgment few days ago, there has been a growing disaffection among some people of the Islamic faith in Northern Nigeria. These people have opined that the judgment delivered by the Federal High court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state was not in line with the dictates of justice. They have argued that Ese was not forced against her will to accompany Yunusa to Kano. They equally argued that what existed between Ese and the convict was a case of ‘love’ and that the court’s acquittal of Yunusa on the offence of abduction clearly shows that all that Ese did with Yunusa was done with her freewill. They have also argued that since Ese has now converted to Islam, she is free to marry even at her age with or without her parents’ consent as same is permissible under the Islamic law. They further argued that Yunusa was prosecuted and persecuted simply because he is a Muslim and that this could not have happened to him if he is a Christian. They also argued that the conviction was possible only because Yunusa was tried in Southern Nigeria and that if he had been tried in the North, no court in Northern Nigeria would have jailed him.

Having examined all the arguments of some of these Muslim faithfuls, one particular fact that stands out in their arguments is their unwillingness to accept the position of the Nigerian law that says that Ese Oruru is a child. Woven subtly in their arguments is their assertion that Ese for all intents and purposes should not be seen as a child. Their contention which also is their belief is that a girl regardless of her age, ceases to be a child once she attains puberty and starts menstruating. To them, at that stage, that girl-child is responsible for her actions and can change her religion and be betrothed or married to whoever she likes. Indeed this belief of theirs is a widely held belief in the Northern states of Nigeria where Sharia is practiced.

Despite this belief system, it is important to have these people reminded that the position of the law remains clear. Section 21 of the Child Rights Act (CRA) 2003 provides that no person under the age of 18 years is capable of contracting a valid marriage and that a betrothal or marriage so contracted by or with such person is null and void and of no effect whatsoever. The CRA also provided that whoever that has a hand in the marriage or betrothal of such a person has committed an offence and is liable to be fined or imprisoned for five years. Section 31 of CRA also provides that whoever that has sex with such a person is liable on conviction to life imprisonment. The Child Rights Act is an Act of the National Assembly made for the entire states in the Nigerian Federation. This Act though seemingly not acceptable to a large percentage of Northern Muslims, still remains the law in Nigeria. It has not been repealed neither has it been rendered null and void by any court in Nigeria despite various clamours that it needs to be domesticated first by the States’ Houses of Assembly before it can apply to states interested in implementing its provisions.

Furthermore, it is worthy of note that long before the conviction of Yunusa Dahiru came to be, girls in Northern Nigeria and especially from the Christian faith have become major targets of some misguided religious fundamentalists who while professing the Muslim faith have resorted to abducting and luring girls for forceful conversion to Islam and forceful marriages. The cases of the two hundred and seventy-six (276) abducted Chibok girls, one hundred and ten (110) abducted Dapchi girls and Leah Sharibu come to mind. Also recently reported is a case of a fifteen year old Miss Patience Paul who was lured and taken by her abductor from Sokoto state to Bauchi where she was converted to Islam and serially exploited sexually by her abductor. It took the personal intervention of the governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal to have this girl returned to her parents in Sokoto state from Bauchi.

Most worrisome about the prevalence of forced conversion of Christian girls to Islam together with the forced marriages is that the perpetrators of these acts claimed to have found validation of their actions in the Islamic faith. However it needs to be restated that Islam does not advocate that its faithfuls should disobey the law of the land where they are domiciled. For example, despite that it is permitted in Islam for a Muslim man to marry up to four wives, such permission is subject to the law of the land where the said Muslim man is residing. That is why it is unIslamic for a Muslim man to practice polygamy in the United States of America as the law of the United States of America forbids polygamy.

Up till this moment, parents of Christian girls in Northern Nigeria live in constant fear of losing their young daughters to some misguided fellows who hide under the guise of Islam to practice pedophilia. It is hoped that with this judgment and conviction of Yunusa Dahiru, the relevant law enforcement agencies to wit- the Nigeria Police and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) will further strengthen their efforts to halt the widespread illegalities of forced conversions and forced marriages of Christian girls in Northern Nigeria.

Lawrence C. Nnoli
27th May 2020