Bashiru Yaya
A 14-year old girl from Niger Republic has been rescued after she was
forcefully married to a Bureau de Change operator in Yaba area of Lagos.
The girl (name withheld) was forcefully married to 25-year old Bashiru
Yaya (pictured above) also from Niger Republic on 29 December, 2013
while the girl was still in Senior Secondary I at Ansarudden Academy at
Randle, Surulere. The girl’s parents, Mr Hamidu and Mrs Abibat Ahmed
were said to have taken the girl away from school while in SS I and
married her out to Yaya as his second wife after he allegedly paid
300,000 Cefas, which is equivalent to N100,000 to them.
Officials of the Office of Youth and Social Development, Lagos State Government, however, got wind
of it after the girl managed to smuggle a written letter to the office
narrating how she was forced into marriage and her willingness to go
back to school. The government officials went to her house at 57, Little
Road, Yaba, to rescue her and later arrested Yaya and the girl’s
parents. The girl was taken into custody of the state government and
her husband was detained temporarily at the Taskforce office, Alausa
before they were released later.
In the handwritten letter the little girl wrote, she made it known that
she was never interested in the marriage, but that it was her mother,
Abibat who spearheaded the whole arrangement against her wish.
“I was in SS I when I was forced into marriage, a marriage I never
wanted and I am 14-years old. Never in my life have I thought of
marriage when I was in school, although my father never accepted this
marriage. It was my mum. My dad wanted me to become someone in life for
me to be able to help the family the way he is doing. Before this entire
marriage proposal started, they asked my dad about it but he said he
did not want to give out his daughter in marriage until she finished
schooling. The marriage took place on 29 December, 2013. I never loved
the man and my mum knew about this all along but she refused and I am
the man’s second wife,” she explained in her letter.
According to her, when she was in school, somebody closed to her
introduced her to the Social Welfare Department of the Office of Youth
and Social Development, which came to her rescue:
“I knew I should have found solution to this at the beginning, I thought
of running away but I asked myself, would running away solve this?” she
said, saying she decided not to run away but to look for other
solution.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr
Dolapo Badru said the girl had the ambition of becoming a medical doctor
before they married her out to a man who already had a wife.
“They stopped her from going to school and she sneaked out and we were
able to rescue her. When we brought them here to my office, we asked the
mother questions and she could not say anything. The girl implicated
the mother in her petition. Her husband has disvirgined her,” he said
Badru said the Child Rights law of the state government is against minor
being married out and that such act attracts punishment according to
the law, saying that government would ensure that the future of the girl
is secure.
PMNews gathered that the girl said while she did not want to remain in
the marriage and wanted to go to school, she did not want any of her
family members jailed by the police over the issue. As they were taken
to the taskforce office, the little girl, thinking that they wanted to
detain her parents changed her story, saying that she loved Yaya and
wanted the marriage, only that she wanted to complete her education
first contrary to the letter she wrote. |
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