Abduction, conversion, custody: The Walida story
Legal tussle and personal account by Walida Abdulhadi Ibrahim, the girl that was allegedly abducted from Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State by an operative of the Department of State Service (DSS), Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, have complicated the preparations for her release to her family. In an exclusive interview, Walida, who now lives at the […]
Legal tussle and personal account by Walida Abdulhadi Ibrahim, the girl that was allegedly abducted from Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State by an operative of the Department of State Service (DSS), Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, have complicated the preparations for her release to her family.
In an exclusive interview, Walida, who now lives at the DSS headquarters in Abuja, alongside her three-month-old daughter, alleged that she would be harmed by her parents if forced to go back to Jigawa.
But her parents debunked the claim, alleging that she was brainwashed to disown them and the religion, Islam, after Ifeanyi allegedly converted her to Christianity and kept her in his house in Abuja.
In the interview she granted to this newspaper, Walida said her troubles started in her neighbourhood, Anku in Hadejia Local Government Area in 2023 when a certain Mariam kidnapped and subjected her to abuse.
She alleged that she only got to know Ifeanyi when she was brought to Abuja after she fled Mariam’s home.
On its part, the DSS said Walida was being kept under protective custody, while Ifeanyi, who has been detained and undergoing investigation, would face disciplinary measures as prescribed by law whenever he is found guilty.
In an interview with Weekend Trust on Thursday, the Deputy Director-General of the DSS, Mr Patrick, said Walida was with them in order to ensure her safety.
He also said the Service had applied for the vacation of the court order which directed that Walida should be released to her parents.
He said: “Walida has expressed some fears about her safety in the course of this investigation. She expressed the fears that she would be harmed if forced to go with her family.
“As a security organisation, we are recruited and trained to protect lives and property. Once somebody expresses fear about their safety, it becomes incumbent on the Service to protect that person,” he said.
The DSS said the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and three civil society organisations (CSOs) comprising representatives from Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA), Abuja chapter, the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Abuja chapter, Muslim Lawyers and Association of Nigeria (MULAN), and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), had been co-opted into the investigation.
Weekend Trust had interviewed some of them on Thursday during a meeting at the DSS headquarters in Abuja to review the results of the psychological evaluation of Walida, which was conducted by the NMA.
Although Walida’s parents did not turn up for the meeting, they nonetheless spoke to the Weekend Trust.
Father’s account
The father, Malam Abdulhadi Ibrahim, denied that Walida was maltreated by her stepmother to the extent that she decided to flee.
He said the claim was just a cooked story she was told to say to make the family look bad.
“The privileges she received from her stepmother are more than what her mother offered her. She was not maltreated to the extent that she would run away from home. She also told us at the DSS headquarters that it was a woman who tapped her and she followed her, not that she ran away from home,” her father said.
On the claim that she was not staying at his place before she went missing, he said, “This is not true. She stayed briefly with her maternal grandmother when she was with her husband before the grandmother became crippled and she came to my house. It is not true that she was not staying with me.”
He also denied that Walida spoke with her stepmother after she reached out.
“It was only once that they called me. It was during the call that I told her about her mother’s death. It was also during the call that I told them that her uncle was in Abuja. He went to see them after I called him to let him know her whereabouts,” he added.
On his part, the uncle, Badamasi Ibrahim, said he never said the family would kill Walida, but told them that she could not marry Ifeanyi because he is a Christian.
Badamasi, who also spoke on Thursday said: “I even told him (Ifeanyi) that he would have to revert to Islam if he wanted to marry her, but he said no. While there, I asked them to hand over Walida, but they refused, saying she had a daughter already. So I asked them to keep the daughter since they said they would not allow Walida to follow me because of the child she bore for him.
“I never said she would be killed. We are not non-believers who would kill their child. We don’t know the situation she has been in these past two years, so how would we say that because she got pregnant we would kill her? That is a lie.”
How the problem started
Walida’s father was at the DSS office in Abuja on February 10, 2026 with the hope that it would be the end of a saga that started over two years ago.
In 2023, Walida, who he said was then 16 years old, got missing and her whereabouts were unknown until December, 2025.
Malam Ibrahim said that after two years and two months of fruitless search and anguish, a breakthrough came unexpectedly.
“One evening after Isha (night) prayers, I received a phone call. The man who called did not understand Hausa well, but a woman who spoke fluent Hausa took the phone and asked how long my daughter had been missing. When I told her two years and two months, she said, ‘Yes, Walida is your daughter, and she is with us in Abuja,” he narrated.
Ibrahim said the callers asked him to travel to Abuja, allegedly saying that his daughter was to be married to one of their men.
“I was shocked. I asked how such a thing could happen. This is madness,” he said, adding that he told them that he was in Hadejia and provided the phone number of his brother, who lives in Abuja.
As a petty farmer who lost his wife during the two-year ordeal and had little to spare to come to Abuja immediately, Ibrahim said he advised that the daughter should be taken to his elder brother who also resides in Abuja.
Malam Ibrahim said he was shocked that his daughter was not released to his brother, as Ifeanyi had insisted that the overture was just to notify the family of his intention to marry their daughter as she had already given birth to a baby girl that belongs to him.
This led to the initiation of a court proceeding in Jigawa and the judge ordered the arrest of Ifeanyi and the release of Walida to her father.
The court order
A Magistrate’s Court in Hadejia, Jigawa State, ordered the arrest and investigation of the DSS officer, Mr Ifeanyi Festus, over allegations of abduction, unlawful detention and forceful religious conversion of Walida.
The order, issued by a judge, Sadisu Musa in suit number DCC/01/2026 between Abdulhadi Ibrahim and Ifeanyi Festus, directed the Jigawa State commissioner of police to arrest and investigate Ifeanyi.
The court also instructed the DSS to immediately release and reunite the victim, Walida Abdulhadi with her parents.
The case followed a petition by a group of lawyers under Gamji Lawchain acting on behalf of Walida’s father.
The petition alleged that the officer abducted Walida over two years ago, held her in unlawful detention, sexually exploited her and forced her conversion from Islam to Christianity without parental consent. It also claimed that she gave birth while underage.
The petition accused other DSS officers of complicity, describing their acts as institutional rather than isolated misconduct.
It condemned the abuse of power and called for the immediate suspension, arrest and prosecution of Ifeanyi.
They urged the authorities to ensure the victim’s protection, reunification with her family and accountability for any DSS personnel found complicit.
After that judgement, Mal Ibrahim travelled to Abuja on the invitation of the DSS, with the hope that he would reunite with his daughter after two years, but this did not happen.
“On the day she went missing, I went to my farm. When I returned, I asked about Walida, but nobody could tell me where she was. We searched everywhere in Hadejia but could not find her,” he noted.
According to him, the matter was initially not reported to the police following advice from family elders. He explained that when he suggested reporting the case, his daughter’s grandfather called for caution.
“I asked her grandfather to help report the case to the police, but he told me to leave everything to prayers. He said we could not accuse anyone of abducting her, and advised me to keep praying, hoping that God would reveal her whereabouts, even in a dream,” he added.
In Abuja
Walida’s uncle, Muhammad Badamasi Ibrahim, who resides in Karmajiji, along Airport Road, Abuja, confirmed the account.
“On January 1, around 10am, my younger brother called and told me that Walida had been found in Abuja. I was completely shocked. For over two years, nobody had heard anything about her,” he said.
Muhammad said he later contacted the callers and was directed to a location around Kuchigoro, also on Airport Road, before being asked to proceed to where he described as DSS quarters.
“When I got there, I was told to ask for someone called Victor. I met a man sitting on a chair, who told me that the girl was with their colleague and that she would be married to him,” he said.
He said he strongly objected, citing religious reasons.
“Our religion, Islam, does not allow a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman. The girl disappeared when she was still a minor, and now, they are talking about marriage,” he said.
According to Badamasi, efforts to secure Walida’s release were rebuffed.
“They told me they would not release her. They even said that if she returned home she would be killed,” he said, adding that he was told that the matter would end in a settlement even if taken to court.
‘My daughter was impregnated, converted to Christianity’
Mal Ibrahim further said his daughter was converted to Christianity, impregnated, and later underwent a Caesarean Section (CS) to deliver a baby because she was not physically mature for a normal childbirth.
“Her dialect has changed completely. I only recognised her voice because I am her father. She was impregnated, and the baby was delivered through CS. A woman named Gloria, said to be the sister of the man involved and a medical doctor, handled the delivery,” he said.
He said the incident had taken a toll on his family, revealing that Walida’s mother died three months ago, allegedly due to the pain of her daughter’s disappearance.
“Her mother died with the pain of not knowing where her daughter was. This suffering has destroyed our family,” he said.
He said the matter was being handled by lawyers from Jigawa State and that efforts had been made to formally report the case to the relevant authorities.
“We have gone to the DSS offices in Abuja several times. We have also taken the matter to court and made it public so that justice can be done,” he said.
DSS says officer detained, but…
Subsequently, the Department of State Services said it detained the officer involved.
The DSS Deputy Director of Public Relations and Strategic Communications, Favour Dozie, said the Service detained the suspect following the court order.
“The attention of the Department of State Services has been drawn to reports alleging the involvement of a staff member, one Ifeanyi Festus, in a case of abduction, defilement of a minor and abuse of office, among other offences.
“For clarity, the Service has no record of the above named in its employment. However, it is hereby confirmed that an active staff member, Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, who is suspected of forcefully converting and marrying Walida Abdulhadi, has been arrested and is currently being investigated.
“It must be stressed that such acts are against our regulations and the laid down code of conduct. As such, the outcome of the investigation will be made public, please,” the DSS noted in a statement.
Family’s lawyer faults Walida’s continuous stay with DSS
The family‘s lawyer, Kabir Adamu, while sharing what transpired in one of the meetings he attended, acknowledged that the DSS came to the meeting with representatives from the FIDA, AYA, NYCN and MULAN.
He said the organisations were supposed to help in the investigations.
“But when they were told to present their findings, none of them was able to present findings from the investigations. They said they were not given any information to help proceed with the investigations,” he alleged.
While noting that any investigation the organisations conducts will be in contravention of the order of the court, he said Walida’s family was not contacted to give their side of the story.
“In Nigeria, it is the police that conduct investigations ordered by courts and not the DSS or any organisation.
“What the court ordered is the arrest of the DSS personnel and the immediate release of Walida to her family. I don’t understand why she is still with them,” he said.
DSS writes to court to vacate order
The Deputy Director, Public Relations and Strategic Communications, Favour Dozie, at the height of the controversy, said the case was being investigated and assured to make its public.
She had said: “This joint investigation team, which was formed by this Service to ensure transparency, has met four times between January 21 and February 10, 2026. A final meeting has been jointly fixed for February 19, 2026 to determine the lawful cause of action within Nigerian laws.”
She, however, said evidence from the National Population Commission had shown that Walida was born on February 7, 2004 (now 22 years of age), and had opted to remain in the protective custody of the Service for now.
Walida
Walida’s father said she was his first child and was in Senior Secondary School 2 when the incident happened.
He said that despite being a farmer, he made sure she and her other siblings had education and prohibited them from hawking.
“She was in SS2. After closing from school, she would come back home to help her mother take care of her younger siblings as the school is within Hadejia Town.
“She was a very simple and quiet child everyone liked to play with. Her easy-going nature made the children in the community give her money to save for them, which they collected anytime they needed it. She was a bright student; and she never brought any complaint that she was facing any challenge that would require her to run away from home.
“When she was with us, she never had mental illness, so we don’t know what they did to her to claim that she is suffering from mental illness,” her father said.
Like Walida, like Ese Oruru
Walida’s situation is similar to the incident of about 10 years ago when Ese Oruru, who was then 13 years of age, was allegedly abducted by Yunusa Dahiru from Bayelsa State to Kano State.
Yunusa, who is also known as Yellow, was said to have taken Ese from her mother’s shop and converted her to Islam, renamed her Aisha and subsequently married her.
Following the incident, Ese’s mother, Rose Oruru, attempted to recover her daughter from the Kano State authorities involved in the matter.
Her case generated a lot of appeal that saw the coordinated media campaign of #FreeEseOruru. She was eventually released after spending 9 months in Kano and pregnant with a child.
Ese was released to the police in Bayelsa State, who returned her to her family after undergoing rehabilitation.
Just like Walida, Ese was reported to have said that she did not remember how she got to Kano or how she left Bayelsa.
She also said she only realised that she was in a strange place when she got to Kano. The relationship produced a baby girl.
Yunusa was, thereafter, jailed for abducting Ese.
Jigawa coalition demands justice, accuses DSS of disobeying court order
The chairman of Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative, Dr Hussain Shehu, has raised fresh concerns over what he described as delay and alleged non-compliance with court orders in the matter.
Speaking during an interaction with journalists, Shehu explained that his organisation, operating under the Adrian Amavata Initiative, is a community-based group rooted in the same locality where the incident occurred, and from where Walida and her parents originate.
According to him, immediately the organisation became aware of the incident, its members paid a visit to Walida’s family in Hadejia to obtain first-hand information.
He said extensive discussions were held with Walida’s father, during which it was confirmed that reports earlier published by lawyers, civil society organisations and the media accurately reflected the facts surrounding the case.
“The father told us that for over two years, the family had been searching for Walida without success. Being a local man with limited resources, he exhausted all the available options and eventually resigned everything to God,” Dr Shehu said.
He revealed that before the matter gained wider public attention, the father had already instituted legal action.
He added that members of the Association of Hadejia Emirate Lawyers are part of the Adrian Amavata Initiative, including the counsel engaged by the family, making the organisation closely involved in monitoring the legal process.
Shehu stressed that since the matter is already before a competent court, the role of civil society groups has been limited to advocacy and ensuring that due process is followed.
FOMWAN calls for her release
Also, The Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has called for the immediate release of Walida.
In a statement signed by its National Amira, Hajiya Sumaye Fadimatu Hamza, and National Secretary, Hauwa Kulu Abdullahi, the organisation said it followed the case with deep concern, describing the situation as unacceptable and disturbing.
The FOMWAN noted that despite a court ruling weeks ago against the individual allegedly responsible for Walida’s abduction, the accused had not been handed over to the appropriate law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution.
“As a faith-based women organisation committed to the protection of women, children, human dignity and justice, we insist that no individual is above the law,” the statement noted.
The group stressed that the rights of a child must be protected at all times in line with Nigerian laws, Islamic principles and international conventions, to which Nigeria is a signatory, adding that justice delayed is justice denied, especially in matters involving minors.
The FOMWAN called on the relevant authorities to comply fully with the court order for Walida’s release and reunification with her parents, and ensure that all the allegations are thoroughly and transparently investigated without obstruction or favouritism.
The organisation also urged civil society groups, religious bodies and human rights organisations to continue peaceful advocacy to ensure justice and preserve public confidence in the justice system.
Speaking to Weekend Trust, an Islamic cleric, Abubakar Adam, condemned the development, saying, “Even if he was a Muslim, it is forbidden to have sexual intercourse with a woman you are not married to.
“In Islam, the consent of parents is one of the requirements a man must fulfill before marrying a woman, so justice needs to take its course by the prosecution of Ifeanyi and his accomplices. I believe an extensive and thorough investigation should be conducted to stop such menace and protect our families and children.
“I read their lawyer’s notes and I feel the pain is raw and the family is broken. The girl was kidnapped and hidden for two years under sexual violation and forceful conversion, and her mother died eventually from the psychological trauma. We pray for the mother and hope the entire Walida family receives justice.”
It is wrong for DSS to disobey court orders – Lawyers
Aliemeka Enwere, a lawyer, said it’s wrong to disobey court orders except there is existence of counter case filed to vacate the existing order and show exceptional circumstances.
“As long as that judgement or order of court is there, the Service is bound to obey it. It may not be as it wishes; that is why anyone that feels aggrieved should approach the court to set it aside for her to be able to stay,” he said.
On his part, Ebuka Nwaeze, a lawyer, said if the girl in question is above 18 years, she is an adult under the law and can make her decisions, including freedom of association, while religious or parental opinions are advisory.
“She has the right to freedom of expression, association, movement and conscience and religion. Even the DSS has no right to take her into custody against her will, except she is under threat of harm,” he explained.