’My daughter was crying when we saw her’
Every Sunday, she was an active member of the choir of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Christ Chapel zone in Kwan Kwanshe, Abuja, where her Ogwashi Ukwu, Delta State-born father is the pastor-in-charge. Her two siblings, a boy and a girl, are still active in the choir, where she has been missed since her departure to study Public Administration.
Her departure from Abuja, where her parents, Pastor and Mrs. Raymond Uzoechina, call home, was the first time she.......
went to Bida, the emirate where Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar is the paramount ruler as the Etsu Nupe.
Charity, which the emirate now identifies as Aisha, has been at the palace of the Etsu Nupe for months. Pastor Uzoechina says she is there a captive and not a freeborn as the palace claims.
He told The Nation yesterday on phone that the emirate’s claim that he would harm her was made up to keep the girl away from her home.
Pastor Uzoechina wondered how those holding his daughter would feel if someone from the South holds their daughter. He said he was not interested in fighting the Etsu Nupe, but only interested in getting back his daughter so that the joy in his home will return, adding: “I am in the midst of Muslims and if the girl wants to practise Islam as they claim, must it be in his palace? I am not fighting him. I just want him to release my daughter.”
Said the distraught dad: “When I insisted during my first visit to Bida that I wanted to see her, they brought her and I called out to her. I told her ‘Charity, your mother is very sick because of you. Let us go home’. She said: ‘Yes daddy, let me go and carry my things’. And as she made to free herself, the two captors held her down.”
The pastor said his petitions to the Niger State Chief Judge and police have not been acted on.
An ailing Pastor Uzoechina, who spoke from hospital bed, said this injustice must be reversed.
His words: “My daughter was crying when we saw her. They never allowed us speak with her. It is not true that the royal father invited me and the girl for talks, with the hope of reconciling us. On March 2, I came to the palace and was taken before the Etsu Nupe. The Etsu Nupe never asked the girl to go back home with me as claimed.
“When they told me she had embraced Islam, I demanded that I was going home with her. But the man declined, saying only the emir has the power to allow the girl go with me. They took me to the emir but the emir refused my plea, saying I should come back next week.
“The last time we saw her, she was like someone in captive. She was not free. She was even crying. She greeted the mother and was crying when she was being led away. The mother is feeling bad and not happy. You need to come to Bida on August 1 when they will rule on our challenge to the jurisdiction of the Sharia Court for you to appreciate what we are going through.
“They claimed to have served me and I refused to come to the court when all they did was to bring a paper and said ‘sign, sign’, without explaining anything to me until they later said they were from the Sharia Court. Contrary to the principle of natural justice vis- a-vis fair hearing, I was not served either with the court summons/processes or hearing notice. The case was filed on March 4; the case was heard March 4 and judgment delivered on the same day. In fact, judgment was also executed on the same date. The question is: why the urgency?”
“They (Sharia court) have fixed Thursday, August 1 for ruling on our appeal that they don’t have jurisdiction. You can’t judge a Christian in a Muslim court. I am appealing to them to vacate the judgment because they don’t have jurisdiction.
“It is not true that my daughter made the allegation that I would kill her if she returns home. Why should I kill her? We asked them to bring her to the court so that my lawyer can cross-examine her but they refused. If she has converted to Islam, must she practise at the Etsu Nupe’s palace? Is Etsu Nupe the chief security officer now? They should not separate my daughter and me. She has stayed in the palace for months. If they say I will harm her, let them release her to the Inspector General of Police, leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and ask me to write an undertaking. I will write an undertaking. I can’t kill my daughter. We need her at home. We are missing her.
“This matter is more than meets the eyes. All kinds of big people are threatening us. Why should I be threatened over my daughter? I trained her to this level and they just want to take her away from me like that. And if it is marraige, marriage has a process.”
The Bida Emirate, in a statement, said the Etsu Nupe should not be blamed for the girl’s alleged voluntary decision.
The statement said Miss Uzoechina approached the monarch for protection following her change of faith from Christianity to Islam on February 15.
“The royal father invited the father of the girl for talks, with the hope of reconciling them. On March 2, the father came to the palace and was taken before His Royal Highness. It was at His Royal Highness chamber the father came face to face with his daughter. After discussions with both the girl and her father, the Etsu Nupe asked the girl to go back home with her father to resolve the matter as a family.
“The girl refused to go home with her father.”
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