Let’s Rise Up and Rescue Little Habiba Isiyaku - Yemi Adebowale

Habiba and her father, Isiyaku
For those who have not been following the story, little Habiba Isiyaku (just 14 years old) was allegedly abducted in Warkaza, Kudun Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State and married out by the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji AbdulMumin Kabiru Usman. Little Habiba’s father, Tanko Isiyaku made the accusation on Wednesday in Abuja. According to Isiyaku, his little daughter was abducted on August 16, 2016 by a staff of the Palace of the Emir of Katsina called Jamilu Lawal. Isiyaku, who spoke through his lawyer, Yakubu Bawa, alleged that the Emir’s palace guards manhandled him while trying to rescue his daughter.

Bawa remarked: “Habiba is under the guardian and control of her parents now until she clocks 18. That’s the age of maturity and accountability. The second point is that Habiba cannot be forcefully converted to Islam by the Emir of Katsina. He has no right to do that.

“And when the CP summoned the parties concerned to his office, what baffled me, and my heart is still bleeding, is the fact that an ordinary security detail from the palace told the police that the Emir had instructed him to bring back the girl to the Palace. And yet, the CP that has the entire command under his control could not even take a position but unfortunately succumbed to the instruction of an ordinary detail and released the girl to the Palace.

“The CP instructed the man to go to the Palace the following day to retrieve his daughter. For me, with due respect, the CP has failed in his constitutional duties as enshrined in the Police Act. On reaching the Emir’s Palace, the Emir asked his aide, the Kilishin Katsina to tell him that his daughter had been converted and that there was now a big barrier between him and his daughter.”

Bawa alleged that the Emir then said that Isiyaku had committed a crime and that he was compelled to say that the complaint he made to the Police was not true. “Isiyaku left the palace shattered, broken, helpless and emotionally broken. Habiba is about clocking two months now in captivity,” Bawa said. The lawyer described the abduction of the minor as vicious, barbaric, and a callous act.

An official of Stefanos Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, Mark Lipdo, decried the pain the family had been going through since the forceful abduction of their daughter. Lipdo further stated that Habiba would clock 15 years today and would have resumed school in the new academic term. The Chief Executive Officer of Fantastic Mum Nigeria (FMN), Mrs. Joy Akanonu, pleaded with President Buhari and his wife, Aisha to intervene and secure Habiba.

These allegations are frightening. It is even nauseating that the Katsina Emirate Council held a press briefing on Thursday to say that little Habiba consented to the marriage and conversion to Islam. We can’t allow this horror to go unchallenged. I am pleading with our lawmakers and human rights activists to step in and rescue little Habiba. I am shocked that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and the Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Usman Abdullahi have not responded appropriately to this abduction. Let us all rise up for little Habiba. She must be set free.

THISDAY