Ese Oruru, Paedophiles And The Law

Leadership Editors

The case of Ese Oruru, a 14 year old girl from Bayelsa State, reopens, again, the insecure situation young girl- children are exposed to in our society today. The nation is yet to get over the shock and shame of the abduction of the Chibok girls who have since become victims of political brinkmanship. Now, Nigerians are confronted with the inanities of another cradle snatcher while the security agencies, as in the case of the Chibok girls, looked on in utter helplessness. This hapless girl was alleged to have been abducted by one Yunusa who also goes by an alias, Yellow, from her mother’s shop in Opolo Yenagoa, taken to Kano, forced into marriage and converted to Islam.

From available reports, she was kept in the palace of the Emir of Kano. Yunusa was said to be a tricycle rider at the time the incident purportedly took place on August 12, 2015. Up and until now, efforts by the parents of the girl to locate her whereabouts and possibly secure her release have proved abortive. In the meantime, there are arguments as to whether it was an abduction or an elopement which, in our opinion, are academic considering the anxiety the girl’s disappearance is causing her parents. Whichever is the case, by law and considering the girl’s age, her relocation is decidedly forceful and illegal as she is been kept without her consent. At 14, she is yet to reach the statutorily stipulated age of consent which is 18.

Justifiably, her parents are not happy with the police and the Emir of Kano’s palace over their handling of the matter. They are worried that the police is not giving the matter the urgent attention it deserved just as they complained that the Emir ought to have avoided being involved in such an issue. As is to be expected, since the story broke, it has continued to trend on the social media. That alone should have embarrassed the police enough to take action to secure the release of Ese from wherever she is hidden and not wait for an Emir to intervene. Instead, they are busy generating excuses to rationalise their crass incompetence. They claim that the Emir’s trip to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj stalled their investigation. How outrageous given the fact that this incident happened since last year and the Emir travelled just last week.

Another disturbing development is the buck-passing among the agencies that should have taken action with immediacy before the girl ends up with pregnancy. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Human Persons (NAPTIP) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are foot-dragging and indulging in annoying legalese when they ought to have piled up pressure on the police to do what is needful to secure the girl’s release.

What is amazing, in our view, is that it took her parents this long to go public when they discovered that their under-aged daughter was missing? If the girl cannot be reached where she is in the Emir’s palace, is Yunusa in the palace too? Why hasn’t he been arrested or do the Police also need the Emir’s intervention to do that? We think that what is to be done to free that girl must be done expeditiously while that paedophile, Yunusa, should be sent back to the zoo and away from young under-aged girl-children.

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