A 16-year-old girl named Grace was kidnapped by a Muslim man named Mallam Abdulra’ub two months ago. After 17 days, the kidnapper called to inform her mother that Grace had been forcibly converted to Islam.
As the complaint was received at the police station, they detained Mallam but only required him to spend one night in a police cell and was released without bail. Grace was detained in jail for 7 days but was ultimately returned to her kidnapper. She still hasn’t returned to her mother, with the Kaduna State Interfaith Office, which is handling the case, saying that they cannot return the girl to her mother since she is now of a different religion.
With regards to her appeal to authorities to get her daughter back, the girl’s mother, Anna writes, “As at the time of writing this petition the girl is in the custody of an Islamic cleric to live with him as directed by Kaduna Interfaith under the guise that they cannot force the girl to go back to her mother since she refused to. I cried and pleaded on my knees with the police and Interfaith that they should please hand over my daughter as I do not have an issue with the girl having a different religion. I told them the girl is my only child and she is all I have in this world, but my plea was not acknowledged.”
Anna went on to cite sections of the Nigerian constitution that are supposed to protect minors, including Section 29(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended), which defines a minor as anyone below the age of 18 years old.
The Nigerian constitution goes on to define the separation of a minor from their parents as a crime. In her letter, Anna calls out the Nigerian police and Kaduna State’s Interfaith office for their handling of the case and their refusal to reunite Anna with her daughter.
Child grooming is becoming more prevalent in Nigeria due to the government’s refusal to protect Christian girls. Though the legal age of consent has traditionally taken second place to what is perceived as the parents’ right to marry their daughters when they please, Nigeria is beginning to feel the global pushback against child marriage.