Abdul, abductor of 14 year old Ifesinachi Ani allegedly released after police pressure from powerful quarters

The abduction of the 14-year old Ifesinachi Ani, a Secondary School (SS) 2 student of Government Sec­ondary School, Apo Resettle­ment, Abuja, six months ago, took a new twist as her abduc­tors made chilling revelations on their modus operandi.
This is even as The AU­THORITY on Sunday gath­ered that the major linkman to the abductors, one Baba Abdul, has been released from police detention, fueling speculation of pressure on the police from powerful quarters.
The AUTHORITY had dis­closed yesterday how Baba Abdul’s wife severally threat­ened to deal with Ifesinachi’s mother whenever her hus­band is released.
Ifesinachi’s mother who ran to our office out of fear for her life, informed us that ever since this medium made the abduction of her daugh­ter public, several people have been coming to nearby Baba Abdul’s residence, telling her that they will deal with her and also pointing fingers at her residence.
Over the weekend, some persons claiming to be mem­bers of the Igbo Muslim Com­munity based in Kano State denied abducting Ifesinachi, insisting they merely took her to Kano in order to protect her from persecution by her mother because she “convert­ed” to Islam.
The revelations were uncov­ered when the Igbo Muslims led by their acclaimed patron, Mohammed Suleiman, came in their numbers to the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command in solidarity with the abductors who were moved from the Central Po­lice Station, Uwani, Enugu to Abuja.
Suleiman, who claimed to be an indigene of Osu Lo­cal Government Area of Imo State, gave his Igbo name as Ike Ezenwa, and appears to be in his late 50s. He said he was converted to Islam in Kazaure, Jigawa State in 1993.
Also on the delegation was another claimant to the post of Secretary of the body, one Nur Azubuike Onuora. He claims to be an indigene of Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State; and one Sadiya Mohammed whose Igbo name is Angelene Ude, an indigene of Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and said to be the mother of Igbo Muslim Community in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Also in the delegation was the kingpin of the Igbo Mus­lin Community in Kano, Ha­jiya Ibrahim who claims to be Igbo. She is said to be the financier and caretaker of all Igbo Muslim converts in Kano.
The AUTHORITY on Sun­day could not, however as­certain the Igbo name of one of the ladies whose name was simply given as Amina and her state of origin as she was busy responding to questions from investigators.
Findings by our reporters shows that she is a successful business woman and pays the school fees of all Igbo young girls who allegedly claim to have converted to Islam through whatever means and also claims to be responsible for taking care of them before they grow up to maturity and become independent either by getting married or starting up their own businesses.
Speaking with The AU­THORITY on Sunday at the FCT Police Command, the Patron of the group, Sulei­man, said that the story mak­ing the rounds that Ifeasinachi was abducted was not true although he could not explain how a teenager disappeared and emerged as a converted Muslim without the consent of her mother who was train­ing her in school.
He could also not explain why their scouts usually sur­reptitiously meet at Baba Ab­dul’s residence at Apo, where he accepted they met the girl, before taking her to an undis­closed mosque in Mararaba, another part of Abuja, before finally moving her to Kano still without the consent or knowledge of her mother.
But maintaining his line of argument, Suleiman told our reporter that “when Ifesinachi saw the light and converted to Islam, she was persecuted by her mother and she even threatened to kill her”.
Asked how they got the au­dacity to call a women whose child disappeared, telling her not to worry, he could not offer any explanation but in stout defence of their woman leader, he said “we don’t know who gave her (Ifesinachi) the phone number of our mother in Kano (Hajiya Amina) and she told her that her mother wanted to kill her because she decided to become a Muslim.
“Our mother (referring to Hajiya Amina) then came to Abuja and picked her up from Mararaba where she was hid­ing and took her to Kano for safekeeping.
“When she took her to Kano, she enrolled her in a private school and paid her school fees amounting to N11,000”, thus confirming our earlier stories that the syndi­cate runs an abduction school.
He however, could also not explain why they did not deem it fit to contact the police over the purported threat to the life of Ifesinachi as claimed and why they still did not get back to the exasperated mother and discuss or obtain her consent before deciding to keep the girl with them, until they saw the stories being published in The AUTHORITY newspa­pers.
When asked if Ifeasinachi was the only girl collected by Hajiya Amina, the patron of the body said “God has blessed her business so she takes care of any Igbo young girl who converts to Islam. She has taken care of uncountable number of girls from our part of the country. There are sev­eral of them”.
Sulaiman disclosed that there are over 2000 Igbo Mus­lims in Kano and that they are doing well.
Sounding unrepentant and in proof that Ifesinachi’s case was not just peripheral, he added that “since we have discovered that Islam is the true religion, we are going to launch a massive campaign so that our people will join us to this religion”.
He added that the group learnt that the media were awash with “insinuations” that Ifeasinachi was abducted, which was why they sent the delegation to take her to her parents, but did not explain why they took her to Enugu rather than Abuja where they took her from.
He said that inspite of media and public condemnation of their actions, “Insha Allah, we will overcome this”.
Providing insight into how they obtained the services of two lawyers who seem to be enjoying VIP treatment at the Criminal Investigation De­partment (CID) of the FCT Command, he claimed that the lawyers were being spon­sored by the Kastina State Branch of the Igbo Muslim Community.
On her part, one Angelene who claimed that her Mus­lim name is Sadiya, disclosed that she came to represent the Zaria Branch of the Igbo Mus­lim Community in the matter.
According to her, “I was taken to the North when I was very young; grew up there and got married and I now have several children (she does not know the number)”.
Sadiya, who does not seem to be perturbed by what her group did, expressed the con­fidence that she and her col­leagues will be vindicated at the end of the day.
However, our sources in­formed us that the so-called Igbo delegates were being sponsored by some powerful forces who had already as­sured them that they would neither be found culpable of any misdemeanor nor prose­cuted for taking a minor away from her parents or convert­ing her to Islam.
Our team of investiga­tors could also not ascertain whether or not any of the sus­pects stayed back at the com­mand headquarters as sources informed us that immediately the team of lawyers from the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) left the place, all the suspects and Ifesinachi were released on self-recognition and asked to come back next week Monday.
We further learnt that they all moved to a mosque some­where in Mararaba in nearby Nasarawa State, which is where they have been operat­ing from.
•OBSERVATIONS
IFESINACHI: Lanky frail-looking Ifesinachi, who adorned traditional long skirt with white head tie which she used to wrap her head and shoulders, behaved like a per­son under hypnotism when The AUTHORITY on Sunday saw her.
She was however given special treatment by the del­egation of so-called ‘brothers’, who ran helter skelter when­ever she requested for any­thing, like when she wanted to visit the convenience.
On sighting her mother, If­esinachi looked unperturbed and sat firmly on the chair provided for her by the Inves­tigating Police Officers (IPOs), but stared at the floor.
When her mother asked her if she recognized her, Ifesina­chi responded in the affirma­tive, calling her ‘my mother’.
She however, tried franti­cally to exonerate Baba Abdul from any form of complicity in the abduction saga, insisting that she was never abducted.
She also told her mother that she was born in 1999, and not in 2001 as stated by her mother, which led to argu­ment between them.
Ifesinachi, maintained that “I have seen the light” and was being harassed by the news media publications reporting that she was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam.
When she was informed that the Enugu State Gov­ernment offered her scholar­ship, full social security and medicare, she said she would prefer to continue with her Islamic studies and that she has nothing to do with her mother, who she accused of maltreating her.
IFESINACHI’S FA­THER:
He was at the FCT Police Command and informed our reporters that he was being taken care of by the Islamic Community del­egation from Kano and that they have been staying at the mosque in Mararaba and come to the police head­quarters along with them.
He was more interested in discussing marital dispute between him and Ifesina­chi’s mother and seemed less interested in what was hap­pening to his daughter.
When asked why he failed to look for his daughter since information got to him that she had been abducted, he told The AUTHORITY on Sunday that “since the wom­an said she would remain in Abuja, it is up to her and so, this issue is her business”.
He however could not of­fer any intelligible plans for the future of his daughter but was grateful to the Enu­gu State Government’s inter­vention and offer of scholar­ship to her.
IFESINACHI’S MOTHER:Mrs. Rachael Ani, mother of the abducted girl, was dumb­founded seeing her daugh­ter dressed like a Muslim. She was also shocked that her daughter “is looking at me morosely and I have no doubt she is under a spell.
“My daughter, who has been with me since birth has been made to even engage me in argument over her date of birth. I was shocked she could pretend to be more accustomed to complete strangers than me, her bio­logical mother.
“Although she acknowl­edged I am her mother, you could see that she did not be­have as if I was her mother, who has been looking for her for over six months when she saw me enter the police of­fice.
“At least, I am grateful to God for rescuing my daugh­ter from the hands of her ab­ductors. I am very grateful to the management and editors of The AUTHORITY news­papers and other journal­ists who have assisted me to publicise my cries. God will reward all of you.
“As for the Enugu State Governor, I lack words to ex­press my joys over the schol­arship offered my daughter. I want government to also assist me because I can see clearly that I am being intim­idated by this cartel of abduc­tors. They are bold, daring and have been threatening to deal with me.
“I don’t even understand why they would still be the ones taking care of my daughter when they should have all been languishing in the prison. The Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police should not let them go scot-free. If they do, these people will wreck several other fam­ilies as we heard them boast they will do. I am grateful to these officers for assisting me. God will bless them. As for the other officers, I don’t know what to say,” she stated.
Refusing to comment on the issues raised by Mr. Sunday Ani who she main­tained is her husband’s se­nior brother, she however, lamented that her daughter’s abductors were taking ad­vantage of the poverty in her family to torment them and bring disaffection into her family, pointing out that God will take control and resolve all those problems.