Girl abducted by clergyman 7 years ago reunited with family

The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Kaduna State branch has reunited Sadiya Idris, a 19-year-old girl with her mother after she was allegedly abducted by a reverend father and taken to Jos, the Plateau State capital, seven years ago. Sadiya, our correspondent gathered, was declared missing in 2013 aged 12. Her family had made several efforts […]

The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Kaduna State branch has reunited Sadiya Idris, a 19-year-old girl with her mother after she was allegedly abducted by a reverend father and taken to Jos, the Plateau State capital, seven years ago.

Sadiya, our correspondent gathered, was declared missing in 2013 aged 12. Her family had made several efforts to locate her through announcements on the media and in mosques all to no avail.

Addressing a press conference on Sadiya’s plight, the Secretary, JNI Kaduna, Malam Ibrahim Kufaina, disclosed that one Reverend Father Jonah Gangar had moved Sadiya to Jos where he enrolled her in a missionary school without making any effort to find her roots.

Kufaina had accused Reverend Gangar of  “abducting the teenager  and forcefully converting her to Christianity as well as denying her access to her parents and relatives. No one could tell the level of trauma and abuse Sadiya went through in the hands of her abductor for years.

“Seven years ago, the girl was declared missing, then we got information that she met a man in his farm who took her to a pastor in Barakallahu community. The pastor enrolled her in a missionary school in Jos. If he was a true Christian, he would have enquired about the girl before changing her life, instead, he changed her name to Christiana.”

He said incidentally, Sadiya’s school in Jos had given the students a short break and it was then that she met some Muslims in Jos who gave her a phone and SIM card, and put her in a vehicle to Kaduna after she narrated her story to them.

The JNI scribe said because of Sadiya’s disappearance, her father died of a heart attack while her paternal grandmother, who was her guardian when she disappeared, also died of same ailment.

He called on the Ministry of Women Affairs, child rights activists and human right organisations to ensure that justice is served by bringing the culprit to book.

Sadiya’s mother, Murjanatu Haliru, while narrating her ordeal, told our correspondent that she never lost hope that she would someday be reunited with her daughter.

She said she was devastated when her daughter went missing, adding: “We used all our time, energy and resources to find Sadiya all to no avail but I never stopped praying and believing she will return to us.”

She lamented how Sadiya’s father and grandmother died in the seven years the girl went missing.

On her part, Sadiya expressed joy at reuniting with her mother and disclosed that she was enrolled in a missionary school in Jos and given a Christian name to hide her identity.

She thanked the Good Samaritans in Jos who, after listening to her story, gave her a mobile phone and paid her bus fare back to Kaduna where she was reunited with her family.

“I have been away from my religion, my culture and my way of life for seven years, so it will take time for me to adjust, but with Allah, I know it will be easy for me,” she said.

She called on government agencies to address the ugly trend of child abduction and trafficking so children are not forcefully detached from their families.