- As court fails to sit, adjourns
Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
The Federal High Court Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Monday fixed the next hearing date for December 8, 2016 in a case involving the alleged abduction and forceful marriage of 14-year-old Ese Oruru by Yunusa Dahiru.
But just as the court adjourned to a new date , following the absence of the trial judge, Justice Ajiya Nganjiwa, parents of the young girl have called on the governments of Bayelsa and Delta states to facilitate the release of the teenager who has been under “protective custody” since the police took over her case.
The parents lamented that it was an irony of sorts that while the accused was enjoying freedom on bail, the victim was being denied freedom under the guise of protection.
They insisted that the conditions that Ese, who gave birth to a baby girl on May 25, 2016, while in Police care at the Police Officers Mess in Yenagoa, and her baby were kept was not conducive for the welfare of both of them.
Dahiru was arraigned on March 8, 2016 at the Federal High Court, Yenagoa, on charges of criminal abduction, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor, but was
eventually granted bail.
Ese’s father, Mr Charles Oruru, expressed sadness over his daughter’s stay at the police officers mess with the new born baby, arguing that Ese was supposed to have returned to school.
“My daughter has been yearning and even crying to go back to school as her classmates are now ahead of her. She has lost a whole year to this saga and she is still in Police protective custody while the accused is enjoying freedom on bail.
“I am begging the Delta government , Nigeria, and the world at large to come to our aid. Nowadays, without education one is going nowhere, so she is not doing anything in their custody, while the accused moves freely and she is suffering there”, he said.
Oruru added, “I have called on the Delta government to assist because I have five children of which Ese is the second to the last child, so my state should come to my family’s aid,” he appealed.
The mother of Ese, Mrs Rose Oruru, said her daughter was not being properly taken care of as a nursing mother, with regards to nutrition and psychological care in a homely environment.
She said: “People from Bayelsa have been assisting us and even the police officers, we want to leave there to our house because the place (Police Officers Mess) is not a good place to stay and bring up a new born baby.
“We are just abandoned in a room that we are not even allowed to go out, we stay with our trash bin which is smelling , we and the new born baby are compelled to breathe the offensive smell.
“So the world should note that we are being marginalised for no reason, and even the boy Yunusa is still owing me some money after taking my daughter to Kano to impregnate her for me”.
