The police in Kano have admitted that they were negligent in the case of Ese Oruru.
Ms. Ese Oruru, 14, was abducted from her home in Bayelsa by a 25-year-old artisan named Yunusa Yellow when she was 13 years old. She says she found herself in Kano and unable to say how she was transported.
Oruru was taken to the palace of the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II where she was forced to convert to Islam and allegedly married off to her abductor.
Six months after her abduction she was finally freed by the Nigerian police after The Trent and Punch brought her issue to national prominence by reporting on her abduction and the work of non-government organisations in getting her released from her captors.
Shuaibu Lawal Gambo, the assistant inspector general of police in charge of zone one, Kano, told journalists in Thursday, March 3, 2016 that the police could have done more to rescue Ese Oruru before it became a media item.
The Emir of Kano says he had referred Ese’s matter to the police and ordered she should be reunited with her parents when the matter was brought to his attention in August 2015. The police admits negligence and say they could have done more to help Ese.
Shuaibu said,“Police ought to have followed up on the case with the sharia commission to confirm whether it has resolved or not.”
Ese’s father, Mr. Charles Oruru confirmed to the press that his daughter was 5 months pregnant when she was rescued from her captors. Her mother says that Yunusa told her that he was being rewarded with an SUV, cash, and a house for “delivering Ese to the palace of the Emir of Kano”.
Yunusa, the abductor, is engaged to be married to another “girl” and never co-habited with Ese, his father told Vanguard.
