ABDUCTION, FORCEFUL CONVERSION TO ISLAMIC RELIGION AND FORCED ISLAMIC MARRIAGE: LAWYER PETIONS IGP, TACKLES F.C.T. POLICE BOSS

Another news emanating from Kwara State seems to show that the days of " ESE ORURU" may not go away soon. This was gathered from the petition received at the Office of the Inspector-General of Police to about the abduction (since 2010) of one MISS ROSE PETER CHUKWU who was forcefully converted to the Islamic Religion and forcefully wedded under the Islamic Rite to one ALHAJI OLATUNJI SULYMAN said to be the current Spokesman of the All Progressive Congress, Kwara State Chapter.

In miraculous twist of fate, mid January, 2017, the girl escaped from the gulag of her captors and her family members who reside in the F.C.T. decided to relocate her to the Eastern part of the country for the safety of her life. However, in what appears to be a dangerous collusion between the her captor and the F.C.T. Commissioner of Police, the young girl was picked up in Enugu on Wednesday 25th January, 2017 and hauled back to Abuja by a team of police officers deployed from Abuja by the F.C.T. Police Commissioner.

Sensing the imminent threat to her life, the family Lawyer intervened by petitioning the Inspector-General of Police and equally filing a Fundamental Rights Action before the Federal High Court where the victim is seeking the damage of One Hundred and Fifty Million (150, 000, 000.00) damages both against the Police and her captor.

Below is a full copy of the Family's petition to the Inspector-General of Police;

THE FALSE IMPRISONMENT, FORCED ISLAMIC MARRIAGE AND FORCEFUL CONVERSION FROM CHRISTIANITY TO ISLAMIC RELIGION OF MISS ROSE PETER CHUKWU BY ONE ALHAJI OLATUNJI SULYMAN: A CALL FOR URGENT INVESTIGATION BY YOUR OFFICE

The above subject-matter refers.
We have been consulted and our services retained by the family of Miss ROSE PETER CHUKWUKU, an indigene of Ebonyi State of Nigeria but resident in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja prior to her disappearance.
Our client went missing some time in 2010 when she was last seen by her family. It was only in 2016 that the family of our client got a call from her whereupon she narrated her ordeal in the hands of one ALHAJI OLATUNJI SULYMAN whom she went to visit in Ilorin Kwara State and never returned.

Upon her miraculous escape from her captor, our client narrated her ordeal and painted a gory picture of how she was forced to take a concoction administered by a Muslim Cleric (Alfa) as part of the initiation process into the Islamic religion. After the said concoction was forcefully administered on her, her orientation totally changed and she saw herself doing only the bidding of her captor and his relatives.
This petition to your highly esteemed office is to specifically invite you to probe the roles played by the Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T.) Command, who deployed the men under his Command, to far away Enugu State on a mission that our client believes is aimed at forcefully handing her over to her abductors for purposes of re-converting her into Islamic religion and perpetuating the purported Islamic marriage to ALHAJI OLATUNJI SULYMAN.

We feel gravely bothered that the Nigerian Police instituted to protect rights amply conferred by the Constitution would be seen acting in circumstances suggesting an unfortunate collusion with a citizen to undermine the very constitutional rights the Force is created to protect. This has compelled us to join the Nigerian Police Force, the Inspector-General of Police and the F.C.T. Police Commissioner in a fundamental Human Rights suit instituted on our client’s behalf, at the Federal High Court, Abuja,  in seeking damages for her rights that have been grossly trampled upon. A copy of the said Human Rights suit is hereby annexed as “Annexure GPC1” for your kind perusal.

We note with concern the mounting judgment debts against the Nigerian Police establishment and it is against that background that it becomes pertinent that your office takes urgent steps to speedily determine those officers within the Nigerian Police Force whose unprofessional conducts are mulcting the Nigerian Police Force into avoidable judgment debts thereby making a piecemeal of the current effort your admirable leadership is making to give our Police a new image that Nigerians crave for.

HUMAN RIGHTS SUIT:

In an originating Motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/69/2017, the victim claimed the following reliefs:

1.     A SOLEMN DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the forceful conversion of the Applicant from Christianity to Islamic religion by the 2^nd Defendant in the manner detailed in paragraph (4) of the Affidavit evidence accompanying this Originating Motion is a gross violation of the Applicant’s fundamental right to freedom of religion trenchantly consecrated in section 39 (1) of the Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

2.     A SOLEMN DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the Islamic marriage forcefully imposed on the Applicant by the 2^nd Defendant in the manner captured in paragraph (4) of the affidavit evidence accompanying this Originating Motion is a gross violation of the Applicant’s fundamental human rights to freedom of religion, thought and conscience entrenched in section 39 (1) of the Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

3.     A SOLEMN DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the unlawful captivity, servitude, isolation from family and relatives foisted on the Applicant by the 2^nd Respondent herein, between the year 2010 and 2016, particularly as described in paragraph (4) of the affidavit evidence accompanying the Originating Motion, is a gross violation of the Applicant’s right to dignity of human person trenchantly guaranteed under section 34 (1) (a)and (b) of the Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

4.     AN ORDER of this Honourable Court restraining the Defendants jointly and severally, either by themselves or through their surrogates, agents, privies, assigns or any other person howsoever described acting on their behalf from attempting to abduct the Applicant for the purposes of forcefully taking her into captivity and servitude under the control of the 2^nd Defendant.

5.     AN ORDER of this Honourable Court restraining the Defendants jointly and severally, either by themselves or through their surrogates, agents, privies, assigns or any other person howsoever described acting on their behalf from further attempting to abduct the Applicant for the purposes of forcefully re-converting her to the Islamic religion and foisting the Islamic marriage on the Applicant (contrary to her consent and exercise of her free will) for the benefit of either the 2^nd Defendant herein or any other person either in Kwara State or any part of the Federation.

6.     AN ORDER of this Honourable Court commanding the 2^nd Respondent  to pay to the Applicant the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (150, 000,000.00) as damages for the wasted years of her life arising from her unlawful imprisonment, degradation of her humanity and worth in the society, loss of a good marital life which she could have enjoyed, incalculable psychological trauma, loss of a better standard of living if she had the freedom to pursue her higher education and many other irreversible losses visited on the Applicant by the inhuman conducts of the 2^nd Respondent herein.

7.     AN ORDER of this Honourable Court commanding the 1^st , 3^rd and 4^th Respondents jointly and severally to pay the exemplary damages of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (150, 000,000.00)  to the Applicant for the their collusion with the 2^nd Respondent to overrun the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of the Applicant in harassing, intimidating and abduction of the Applicant from her Enugu residence with the purpose of foisting on the Applicant the Islamic religion and Islamic marriage contrary to her conscience and exercise of free will.

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