Police ask married 14-year-old Katsina girl to return home

Habiba Isa, the 14-year-old girl who was allegedly coverted to Islam and forced into marriage, has been asked, by the Katsina State Police Command, to return to her parents’ house, because, at her age, she was too young to take any decision on marriage and religion, Punchng reports.

The advice was given by the state police commissioner, Usman Abdullahi, while explainig the police’s position on the development. Abdullahi said the police received a petition about the issue in September and invited Lawal, the alleged abductor.
He added that investigation into the case absolved Lawal of any criminal act and the command had no choice, but to release him on bail. Abdullahi said: “It was gathered that the girl was neither “kidnapped, abducted nor procured,” as she was the one who willingly left her parents’ house to the house of the Chairman of Hisbah, who took her to their village head and later to the district head of Kankara, where she explained that she had converted to Islam.
This was contained in the statement she gave willingly to the police. The police boss said the command also invited Isa’s father, Isyaku Tanko; his two brothers, their lawyer, state and local government chairmen of the Christian Association of Nigeria, as well as the association’s officials from the Kankara LGA, to a meeting.
Also present at the meeting, according to the commissioner, are Lawal, his father, the representatives of the Emir of Katsina and some senior police officers. The CP said, “At the meeting, Isa, in addition to the written statement, said she decided on her own to leave her parents’ house for Kankara town, where she converted to Islam, without the influence of Lawal. In view of the foregoing, I want to advise the girl to go back to her parents."