Justice Jane Inyang of a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa has sentenced one Yinusa Dahiru to 26 years in prison for abducting a 14-year-old girl, Ese Oruru from Bayelsa and marrying her without her parents’ consent in Kano.
The matter which occurred in August 2015 had taken an ethnic colouration, threatening to set many Nigerians against each other.
Dahiru had allegedly whisked Oruru to Kano without her parents’ knowledge, converted her to Islam and married her. She gave birth in May 2016.
Dahiru was arraigned by the police in March 2016 on a five-count charge bordering on abduction, kidnapping, unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual exploitation of Oruru, who was 14 at the time.
Delivering judgement on Thursday, Justice Inyang acquitted the accused on count one but jailed him five years on count two, seven years on count three, seven years on count four, and seven years on count five.
The judge ruled that the sentences would run concurrently.
Shortly after the matter became public, the convict’s father, Bala Dahiru had denied that his son married the teenager.
He said he personally reported the matter to the head of his village, Kauyen Tofa, Kura Local Government in Kano, who escalated it to his superiors.
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