The father of Yunusa Yellow, the alleged abductor of Bayelsa teenager, Ese Oruru, on Wednesday gave details of how his son met and took the teenager to Kano in 2015.
Dahiru Bala, 55, told PREMIUM TIMES in his Tofa village home in Kura Local Government Area of Kano State that sometime in 2015 his son called to inform him about his plan to come with Miss Oruru from Bayelsa State.
“When he told me about the plan to come with a girl from Bayelsa to Kano, I asked him not to,” the man said.
“But he insisted that Aisha had become a Muslim, fell in love with him and wanted to marry him. I still warned him against coming with her,” he said.
Mr. Yunusa’s father said his son, being the domestic servant of the Orurus, fell in love with their daughter and that both agreed to travel to Kano.
“Yunusa ran errands for Aisha’s family and at the same time riding commercial motorcycle to earn a living. They fell in love in the house and eloped to Kano,” he said.
Mr. Bala said while he had strictly opposed his son’s decision to come to Kano with Miss Oruru, his son informed him that the girl had threatened to commit suicide if she was not allowed to travel with Yunusa to Kano.
“Still, I warned him against coming with her,” the father said.
“Surprisingly, the boy called me the following day to announce his arrival with Aisha, saying they were on their way to my house.
“On hearing this, I then quickly rushed to our village head to inform him about the development.
“The village head then said I should take them to his house immediately after arrival. They arrived late at night, so she passed the night in my house.
“The following day, we went together to the village head of Tofa, who then led us to the house of his superior, the district head of Kura.
“On arrival at Kura, the district head studied the case and ordered that we be taken to the emir’s palace in the city.
“When we arrived at the palace, the emir was away in Saudi Arabia, but the Wambai of Kano [a senior councillor in the palace], directed a palace guard to take us to Shari’ah commission office. Aisha was then taken into custody by the Shari’ah office.
“From that day, the officials kept calling to draw our attention that she cried every day that she wanted to see my son.
“On Thursday same week, the family of Ese arrived from Bayelsa and on Friday the Emir came back from Saudi Arabia. Emir looked at the complication of the case and after interviewing the family of Ese, who told him that she was still 14 years old and she could not decide for herself, and since Ese was crying that her family might kill her because she converted to Islam, the Emir ordered that we were taken to the police office [Zone 1 Police Headquarters, Kano].
“At the police office, and before Ese’s family, the girl cried that her life was in danger and that she rather died than go back with her family. In sympathy, the police said Aisha should be taken back to Kura.
“Back in the village, I took her to the house of the district head. I refused to let them stay together in my house since they were not married.
“The district head then enrolled her in both Western and Islamic schools,” Mr. Bala said.
According to him, Miss Oruru accepted Islam in the house of the district head.
Miss Oruru was reunited with her family on Wednesday, following the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, who ordered that she should be taken to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital where her mother joined her from Bayelsa.
