Three underaged teenage girls, who were abducted in Bauchi State and forcefully converted to Islam have finally been rescued by men of the Nigeria Police Force.
The three girls are Blessing Gopep, 13, Linda Christopher and Progress Jacob, 13.
According to the Prison Inmate Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, the girls were handed over to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 12, Bauchi, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, on Tuesday, by the Shari’ah Commission in the state.
SUNDAY PUNCH who engineered the release of Bayelsa State-based Ese Oruru has also been at the forefront of the release of the girls kidnapped in Bauchi.
The Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State Police Command, Mr. Baba Tijjani, confirmed the release of the girls in an interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday.
Tijjani stated, “The girls have been released. They were not held by the Bauchi State Shari’ah Commission; they volunteered to become Muslims on their own and reported themselves to the Da’awah & Islamic Education Department, which took them to the Bauchi State Shari’ah Commission.
“Now, they have been produced. Progress Jacob and Linda Christopher have been released to their parents while Blessing Gopep’s parents have been told to come tomorrow (Wednesday) and they will go home with their daughter.”
When asked if the case would be treated as a criminal case and the culprits prosecuted, the police commissioner said, “We just released the girls to their parents. The investigations are still ongoing and we will come out with the details after the investigations.”
The Executive Director, PIDI, Mr. Mbami Sabka, who also confirmed the rescue to The PUNCH on the telephone on Tuesday, said he was glad that effort to rescue the girls was not wasted.
Sabka said, “I am extremely grateful to PUNCH newspapers for their help. We hope that other perpetrators would learn from this. We, as an NGO, won’t stop at this; we will continue the fight for the release of child brides. An end must be put to this illegal act.
“The police have asked the Shari’ah Commission to bring the abductors involved because the girls didn’t walk to the commission by themselves; someone brought them.”
PIDI had written letters to the state Commissioner of Police and the National Human Rights Commission but got no response before taking the cases to Amnesty International.
