Mama Jessy’s granddaughter, (Joy’s daughter) Rita Chinedu Ukeje, 15,
was allegedly abducted by Islamic fundamentalists and given out in
marriage to one of their own. Since then, the family has been in untold
distress.
Now, Mrs. Ukeje is calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to help rescue the girl from the clutches of her abductors.
Ukeje said her granddaughter was given out in marriage by a top official
of Zaria City Local Government area, without the consent of her family.
Rita, an SS 3 student of Top Spring Secondary School, Zaria, Kaduna
State, was abducted by a commercial bus driver, called Usman, who held
her captive in his home, denying her the chance of sitting for the
Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) she had enrolled for.
Few weeks later, she stated, the council chief, who took her to his
home and promised to make her available for settlement with the family,
allegedly gave her out in marriage to Usman.
The incident happened in Damagaji area of Zaria in Kaduna State, even as
every effort made by the family to rescue the teenage girl from the
clutches of her abductors have met with stiff resistance from the
kidnappers.
Mama Jessy, who could not hold back tears while narrating the
abduction of the girl to Daily Sun in her house in Eluoma Uzuakoli,
alleged further that the girl’s abductors are after Rita’s mother, Joy
Ihedinma Ukeje, for insisting that Rita must be sent back to her.
She alleged that they had been sending assassins to her, forcing her to
quickly run back to Uzuakoli from Zaria after several attempts on her
life.
“If they wanted to marry my granddaughter, both tradition and
religion demand that they should come home and marry her according to
Igbo tradition and customs. But they abducted her, took her into
captivity after undergoing their Muslim rituals of bathing and feeding
her with concoction as a way of turning her into a Muslim. Then, they
gave her to somebody to marry without the consent and knowledge of her
parents. This is certainly against religion and against tradition,” she
said.
Rita’s mum, Mrs. Joy Ihedinma Ukeje, 37, said the incident happened one
Friday in April when she came back from the market and discovered that
her daughter was not at home.
“I wanted her to bring me some money to buy water and firewood which
we would use for the next days business, but I did not see her at home. I
called her phone and one Usman picked it and told me that they were in
Zaria city, the traditional abode of the Hausa, in the house of the man
that turns people into Muslims. I was shocked and wondered what they had
gone to do there.
“By 12 midnight, they brought her back in their vehicle and I rushed
out, looked into the vehicle and saw that they had covered her with
their Muslims clothing. My elder sister asked Usman whether he would
marry her, having dressed her that way and Usman said no. Then they left
without Rita. We questioned Rita on why she did not tell us about what
she was doing, but she kept crying. By the time I came back the
following day, she had disappeared.
“I called her phone and she said she was coming, but she never came
and I knew that she was under some influence. I was told that even if I
took her back to Uzuakoli, she would still find her way back to meet
Usman. I called Usman and asked him to bring back my daughter and he
told me that I was stupid. I went and reported the matter to the police.
They got him arrested and brought Rita to the police station.
“When the police eventually brought her out, she said she did not
know me, my sister, my aunty and all our relations. She said the only
person she knew was Usman and his people. We went to the police station
by 9 am and left by 10 pm because I said I would not leave my child for
them.
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