Another 15-year-old Idoma girl, Lucy Ejeh kidnapped in Zamfara, converted to Islam
Mr. Ejeh, and his wife lived in Talata Mafara town, headquarters of the Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
On October 31, 2009, their 15-year-old daughter, Lucy, was abducted. Luckily for the couple, Lucy was found on November 3, 2009— three days after.
According to her parents, the teenager was found in the house of an Islamic cleric, named Alhaji Awaisu.
Her father, however said the teenager was not allowed to follow them home and that she was kept in Awaisu’s house to the knowledge of the police.
Lucy, who was born and raised a Catholic, was said to have been immediately converted to Islam and her name changed to Lewusa.
Due to their persistent moves to retrieve Lucy, the Ejehs became subjects of intimidation and harassment by relatives and followers of Lucy’s abductor in Talata Mafara.
A sad Ejeh said, “We had to leave the town in 2010 due to the level of death threats I was receiving from the community. My other children received threats whenever they went out to fetch water or run other errands. Also, due to my persistent demand for my child, the management of the bank, where I worked, advised me to leave the town and redeployed me to its branch in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital in 2010.”
By 2012, he was asked to resign due to his frequent travels to Zamfara State in order to secure his daughter’s release. Then, he relocated to Nasarawa State, where he got another job with a security firm.
Ejeh has not seen his daughter till today.
As if their trauma of the last five years was not enough, only about a fortnight ago, Ejeh and his wife received calls from the abductor of their child that he was about to marry Lucy.
“When he called me, I told him never to try it, but he said he would go ahead with the plan and there was nothing we could do to stop it. He said we should do our worst,” Mrs. Ejeh, a mother of seven told SUNDAY PUNCH.
Lucy’s father also confirmed that he received a similar call from Awaisu.
“I asked him if he was her biological father, but he said I should do my worst. But, on March 1, he (Awaisu) called me again that the wedding had taken place on Saturday (February 27),” he said.
Lucy, the second of a family of seven children —four girls and three boys— was at the time she was kidnapped, a Senior Secondary School 1 pupil of Government Girls College, Talata Mafara, in Zamfara State.
According to Mr. Ejeh, one of his relatives, James Oblaka, sent a petition dated November 12, 2009, and addressed to the Executive Secretary of the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, reporting the incident.
The petition, a copy of which was shown to SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, bears the NAPTIP’s acknowledgment stamp that the agency received it on November 13, 2009.
He said NAPTIP responded to the petition by sending two officials to Talata Mafara to investigate the case.
“When the two men discussed with me, they said they needed to meet with the Emir. They later returned from the Emir’s place, promising to get back to me but I have never heard from them since then,” he said.
He also showed SUNDAY PUNCH a copy of another letter of complaint dated January 28, 2010, sent to the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonaya Onovo.
The letter, which was also signed by Oblaka on behalf of the Ejehs, bore the stamp of the office of the Inspector-General of Police which shows that it was received on February 3, 2010.
But David said he never got any response from the Force Headquarters.
Attempts by SUNDAY PUNCH to contact the Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Istifanus Shettima, on Friday, were not successful as his telephone line was unreachable.
There was also no response to the text message sent to his telephone line.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Bisi Kolawole, did not respond to either calls or text message sent to her phone.
Last Friday, SUNDAY PUNCH also engaged a fluent speaker of Hausa to reach Awaisu through a telephone line he normally used to contact Lucy’s parents.
But after a brief introduction that our correspondent wanted to make an inquiry from him, the masculine voice on the other side of the conversation brashly responded he was not Awaisu.
When contacted on Friday, NAPTIP’s Head of Press and Public Relations, Mr. Josiah Emerole, said he had been off work on health grounds for about a week, and needed time to find out the facts about the case from investigators.
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Treasure Orokpo
A multi-talented individual with a passion for diverse fields, Treasure Orokpo is a trained journalist, skilled cook, and AI enthusiast. When she's not uncovering the latest stories, you can find her whipping up culinary creations in the kitchen and entertainment.
