» "I Sold Ifesinachi To Scouts From Emir Of Zazzau" - Abductor «

A new twist has crept into the tragic tale of the abduction
and conversion to Islam of a 14 year-old Igbo school girl,
Ifesinachi Ani.
Ifesinachi, a teenage secondary school girl, was abducted
in Abuja and taken to Maiduguri, then Zaria, where she was
reportedly converted to Islam and married off.
The linkman to the abductors, Baba Abdul, who has been
arrested by the police, yesterday claimed that he sold the
girl to scouts allegedly sent by the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji
(Dr.) Shehu Idris.
However, the Secretary to the monarch, Alhaji Shehu Garba
(Dokajen Zauzzau) dismissed the claim, stressing that “we
don’t know anything about that. How can you even believe
such a thing?”
He asked our correspondent to come over to Zaria so that
“we can see face-to-face and discuss such a matter. It is
a serious matter and it is not possible to link the Emir
with such a trash”.
However, Police sources informed The AUTHORITY that
Baba Abdul told the Police investigators during
interrogation that “I sold the girl to them”, but has not
been able to disclose how much he collected from the deal
up till the time of filing this report.
According to the sources, Baba Abdul maintained that the
scouts told him they were from the Emir of Zazzau and
that they were looking for young children, especially girls,
from the southern parts of the country to convert to Islam
and marry.
“I was able to get the girl (Ifesinachi) first, to believe that I
was offering assistance to her and her family. This is
because her mother does not have any serious means of
livelihood apart from the local Igbo beans, ‘okpa’, she is
selling. And because we live close by each other and I was
able to convince her (Ifesinachi) and she followed every
instruction I gave her.
“I also showered her with gifts but warned her not to tell
her mother and when I discovered that she was doing what
I asked her to do, I took the next move, which made her to
hate her mother.
“It was after I had done these preliminary things I was
supposed to do, that I sold the girl to them (the scouts).
They took her away and finally, I learnt they took her to
Zaria and that is where they told me she is at the
moment”.
This informed why The AUTHORITY called the Ciroman
Zazzau who denied knowledge of the issue and referred us
to the Emir’s secretary who vehemently denied Baba
Abdul’s claims and link with the Emirate.
The AUTHORITY ON Sunday had reported the sinister ac­
tivities of a band of syndicate abductors whose primary
objective is to lure Christian teenagers and minors from
the southern parts of the country and force them to
embrace Islam and marry them off. This story led the
Police to arrest the Abuja-based, self-styled Islamic
cleric, Baba Abdul, who facilitated Ifesinachi’s abduction
from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Initially, the abductors made the girl’s mother to believe
that the 14-year-old SS-2 student of Government
Secondary School, Apo Resettlement, was taken to
Maiduguri, but it was later discovered that she was
actually taken to Zaria in Kaduna State.
The AUTHORITY on Sunday had exclusively reported that
Mrs. Ani, Ifesinachi’s mother, said her daughter informed
her via GSM short message (sms) a few days after her
abduction that she was whisked out of Abuja to Maiduguri.
Ifesinachi’s mother confirmed that she used the same
telephone line to call her daughter’s abductors asking
them to allow her see Ifesinachi but they refused, telling
her that her daughter was in good health and has been
converted to Islam, married off and was now attending an
Islamic school where they paid N35,000.
She also told our Editorial Board when Barrister Amarachi
of May Child Safety Initiative (MSI), an Abuja-based NGO,
brought her to the head office complex of The AUTHORITY
Media and Publishing Limited, that she discovered the pic­
tures of her daughter adorned in hijab and posted on the
internet as proof that they have actually converted her
daughter to Islam. Mrs. Ani confirmed the pictures of the
girl in hijab to be those of her daughter.
The AUTHORITY, in the course of the investigations, had
also called the same telephone line (08060598215),
registered in the name of Ngozi Yellow Osegbere, and a
female voice who speaks Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and
Beriberi Languages responded.
She wondered why the reporter detailed to speak with her
should feign ignorance of the reward of converting people
of other tribes to Islam, especially as he claimed that he
was a Muslim. Our encounter with the woman was
reproduced in The AUTHORITY on Sunday.