Bruce and his mischeavous ilks had earlier peddled a story that one Yunusa an old man and indigene of Kano state had kidnapped a 12 year old teenage girl Ese Oruru from Bayelsa and that the girl was forcefully converted to Islam and is being held against her wish inside the Kano Emir's palace
This false story naturally elicited anger among well meaning Nigerians including my big sister Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Alhassan and in no time a hash tag #freeEse# was coined as call to action.
As usual the social media went agog with various reactions, many a commentator especially from across the Niger river condemned the respected Emir of Kano for keeping the girl at his palace, others took time to bash Islam and its legal system, the Shari'ah.
National association of women lawyers and other human right groups all jostle for space in the media to condemn the 'abduction' . In all these, brazen Islamaphobia rather than common sense was let to reign supreme while caution was utterly thrown to the dogs.
The Ese Oruru saga actually started sometimes in September last year, a very simple case that could have been amicably resolved was let to drag in because the Ben Bruces of this world are cashing in on the cheap publicity, and at the same time the Bayelsans saw it as an opportunity to tarnish the name of His Highness the Emir of Kano as a way of getting their pound of flesh for his role in striking the first blow that brought down the goverment of (their own) Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed a careful analysis of the whole saga clearly points to the fact that these folks are more interested in dragging and politicizing the matter than 'freeing' the confused girl.
The Emir, Muhammad Sanusi in his usual legendary intellectual sagacity spoke to the media and in a matter of minutes fierced the veil of appearances and falsehood and as well exposed the proud and deceit surrounding the Ese Oruru saga.
At the end of the briefing, no one was left in doubt that not only that the Emir has nothing to do with the custody of the girl, he has ordered that the she be returned to her parents several months ago. The Emir produced a letter to that effect as evidence.
Human right lawyers, women right activist and journalist who were allowed to see the girl in police custody not in the Emirs palace and interview her all confirmed that the girl followed Yunusa willingly and had decided not to return to her parents. It was also confirmed that the girl is 17 years old while Yunusa is a young man of 18 years contrary to speculations.
It is now established beyond doubt that we are dealing with a case of elopement and not abduction and that some selfish individuals choose to use the case as a cheap and easy way to add feathers to their political nest. They don't care if by whipping such sentiments the country should go to blazes.
The Emir did not support the elopement as can clearly be seen by his order, he has done the needful and played aptly his role as a father to all. The girl needs a lot of counseling to make her understand the implication of taking such a weighty decision. Meanwhile Ben Bruce and his cohorts should bury themselves in shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment