How teenage girls are being forcefully married off in the North- Human Right group

Emmanuel Adeyemi Lokoja

The Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, an International non governmental human Rights organisation has made  startling  revelations on how coordinated attacks are being carried out against Christians in  Northern  Nigeria and how their teenage girls are  being forcefully abducted and married off 

In a one-day sensitisation tagged ‘media roundtable’ organised for media men in Kaduna , the CSWN regretted that Christians in the North are being systematically killed, maimed and rendered homeless due to their profession of the Christian faith.

In his welcome address, the chief executive officer of the human right organisation, Rev. Yunusa Nmadu,  expressed deep sadness that in  southern Kaduna alone, more than 103  coordinated attacks have been carried out from  2016 to date  with hundreds of lives of mostly women and children lost. 

He said in some of these attacks curfews were placed on the residents of the communities  to restrict their movement but  the attackers  used the curfew  time to unleash  attacks using sophisticated weapons on the hapless people. 

Rev Nmadu who said it was a bad thing in the sight of God for anyone to take human life called for prayers and repentance,   stressing  that  every man will be made  to account for his actions  before God on the last day.

During her remarks, the chief operating officer,  Mrs Agera  Teman Liti said the vision of the organisation is to fight for an equitable and peaceful society and to ensure that everyone is allowed to freely practise  his religion without  any interference

 She also said the organisation is established to  support victims of religious discrimination,  violence and vulnerable people and to be the voice of the voiceless  and to  promote religious liberty by mobilizing the general public  to pray and stand in the gap for those persecuted.

In his keynote address,  the guest speaker Barrister  Mark Jacob  who urged the media to play it’s watchdog role  well by defending  the defenceless, and hold the government accountable, said the fabric of the nation is bound to decay if the media is found complicit in its responsibilities.

Barrister Jacob expressed sadness that some journalists took side with the government  and refused to report  the series of killings in southern Kaduna while some under reported the killings. 

He stressed the dangers for any society where the media is found docile or has been compromised.

He therefore urged the journalists to  always ensure they do their thorough investigations, unearth the truths and report same  without fear of whose ox will be gored, adding that the truth has no substitute.

Participants were  later shown video clips   of parts of some communities in the southern Kaduna where hundreds of people were gruesomely murdered with  some of their houses burnt. 

While giving a comprehensive report on the advocacy  efforts made so far  by the organisation, the director of advocacy, Barrister Mathew Folorunsho Braimoh mentioned series of cases where teenage Christian girls were being abducted and forced to marry Muslims.

He said while some are being enticed with money  and material possessions, while other were simply hypnotised such that  even when  they see their  parents they denied them. 

Braimoh said in some of the cases he encountered, some of the abductors would argue that the abducted  girls were up to 18 years and couldc therefore decide for themselves, but he stressed that one of the fundamental factors of marriage is  that the consent of the parents must be sought before they joined together  which he said v the abductors refused to  follow.
The height of the programme was when participants from each state of the north  stood up to give  the various persecutions , denials going on in their various states against Christians

In summary, some of the  persecutions mentioned  against Christians, include  discrimination and outright denial to job opportunities, scholarships, medical treatment, education , promotion in state civil service  with the refusal of teaching  of Christmas religious studies in some primary,  secondary schools and some tertiary institutions .
Others are refusal to give land for the building of Churches or over taxiing of existing churches,  refusal to allow  preaching of a sermons on the state Electronic media, or allowing Christian messages or programmes to be relayed on Christmas day or during Esther celebrations, among others