Another abducted minor.

In spite of the huge national outcry in the wake of the Ese Oruru saga, it appears that Nigeria is still unable to deal with the patently criminal offence of abducting young girls, holding them incommunicado, forcibly converting them to Islam and marrying them off without the consent of their parents or guardians.
The latest case is that of Blessing Oshi, who was sent from Enugu State by her parents to live with relatives in Jos, Plateau State, in 2012 when she was nine. In August 2014, on the occasion of that year’s Sallah celebration, she disappeared. About a week later, her relatives allegedly got a call from an official of the Bauchi State Sharia Commission, informing them that Blessing was now in Bauchi, where she had willingly become a Muslim.


This was followed by a letter from the commission formally notifying her parents and guardian of Blessing’s supposed conversion and its decision to place her in the custody of the Da’awah Council Committee, apparently due to her allegation that her relatives had refused to allow her to practise her new religion. When Blessing’s father and two of his relatives went to Bauchi in an attempt to get her back, she refused to go home with them despite hours of pleading.
This latest episode in Nigeria’s tragic  abduction saga is replete with all the usual elements: the targeting, kidnap, brain-washing and forcible conversion of a young girl without the knowledge or consent of her parents, and the utilisation of state institutions in enforcing clearly illegal actions.
Blessing was about nine when she first disappeared. As such, she was still under the authority of the guardian with whom she was staying in Jos. Since it is unlikely that she could have gone to Bauchi on her own, it is obvious that certain individuals or groups virtually abducted her, a criminal act that was apparently given sanction by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission working in tandem with the Da’awah Council Committee.
The commission and the committee are both guilty of exceeding their mandate at the very least, and criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and illegal detention at the very worst. Neither body is constitutionally empowered to facilitate the abduction or conversion of any Nigerian citizen, much less one well below the age of majority.
The fact that the two organisations did not even bother to conceal their actions is ample demonstration of their confidence in their ability to get away with what they did. This in turn points to a clear dereliction of duty on the part of the country’s security organisations, especially the Nigeria Police. When Blessing was first reported as missing, did the police investigate her disappearance properly? When the Sharia commission’s letter was received, what did the Plateau and Bauchi states’ commands do about it? Why was it so difficult for Blessing’s father to enforce his paternal rights when he went to Bauchi to claim his daughter?
If this abduction of female minors is not treated with all the seriousness that it deserves, it could metastasise into a cancer as serious as the Boko Haram insurgency. Police procedure dealing with such cases must be completely overhauled in order to make it easier for missing girls to be found. When they are located, they must be returned to the custody of their parents or legal guardians, and criminal proceedings instituted against the abductors and their collaborators.
Bodies like the Bauchi State Sharia Commission and the Da’awah Council Committee must be severely warned against interfering in the lives of other citizens, especially those who hold religious beliefs different from theirs. Their religious activism does not place them above the law.
Only a hypocritical nation laments the abduction of the Chibok girls by terrorists while pretending not to see the abduction of other girls by kidnapping rings masquerading as religious advocacy organisations.