By Moses E. Ochonu
A quick proclamation by way of
introduction: Ese Oruru, Patience Paul, and their parents are not the villains
of the kidnapping and conversion of underage Christian girls in Northern Nigeria . Blaming the victim is a form of
re-victimization, an exculpatory gimmick employed by those who, for reasons
known only to themselves, do not want to confront or unequivocally condemn an
egregious crime.
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| *Ese Oruru: After her traumatic experience |
More instances of abduction, forced conversion and in some
cases forced marriage of underage Christian girls have now come to light since
the resolution of the Ese Oruru and Patience Paul cases. Ese’s case has opened
a floodgate. Many cold cases, long-stalled in the labyrinth of law enforcement
and legal inaction, are now in the public domain, resurrected by parents as the
press and social media have become sensitized to this menace. As of today,
there is an unresolved case in Zaria , one case
in Zamfara State ,
and four cases in Bauchi
State
There should be no justifying the many wrongs that have been
committed against these children and their parents by overzealous religious
enforcers who have placed themselves above the legal and law enforcement
institutions of the country. Some of these cases, in addition to the crimes of
forceful conversion of and sexual assaults on a minor, are clear cases of
kidnapping, a heinous offense under our penal code. Even in the case of Yunusa
and Ese, clearly a 22 year old (his own father says he is 22) cannot have sexual
relations with a 14 year old under Nigerian law. It is statutory rape of a
child. A 14 year old is not at the age of sexual, romantic, and marital
consent, period; so enough with all the specious mitigations of this egregious
crime. Enough with the defensiveness.
Those of us who lived and schooled in the Muslim-majority states of
the North know that these incidents have been going on for years. They are not
outliers, as some people would want us to believe. Parents and pastors have
been crying about these crimes for decades but very few cases actually made it
to the national press. Starved of national press attention and without the
democratized discursive space of today’s social media, many such cases were
never resolved in favor of the children and their parents.
