Walida: Arewa youths warn against undue interference

Arewa youths on Monday warned against undue interference and politicisation of the case of a woman said to have been living with a Department of State Services operative, without the consent of her parents.

The woman, Walida Abdulhadi Ibrahim, is at the centre of the controversy, following claims and counter claims of abduction and forced marriage to a DSS official, Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi.

Walida claims she is 22 but her parents said she disappeared at the age of 16 and was converted from Islam into Christianity and now has a child with the DSS operative, a move that has drawn the ire of her parents and relatives.

However, apparently afraid of the fate that could befall Walida should she return, the DSS has been keeping her under what it called “protective custody,” which hasn’t settled well with some Muslim groups and other interested parties.

The Arewa Youth Assembly, a northern influence group, on Monday in Abuja advised those dabbling into the matter to respect Walida’s fundamental human rights.

Speaker of Arewa Youth Assembly, Mohammed Salihu Danlami, warned at a news conference in Abuja that it was wrong for interested parties to dabble into a purely personal issue that involves a woman and a man, who now have a young daughter in their relationship.

The group expressed surprise that interested parties were out to ruin the relationship between Walida and Ifeanyi after the two had been blessed with a daughter.

He said his group found it disturbing that some groups were interested in taking over the duties of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Social Welfare of the Ministry of Women Affairs, bodies he said had been duly notified of the matter and had launched joiint investigations comprising FIDA, notable CSOs (NYCN, AYA) as well as a member of Peace Building Agency of Nigeria.

The group further expressed surprise that the other groups weren’t interested in how Walida was lured from her home, saying the syndicate may have lured many more young girls from the north.

The Arewa group commended the DSS for living up to its constitutional mandate of protecting Walida, saying the secret police acted without fear or favour. It also commended DSS for transparency in the joint investigative which the secret police had periodically briefed the public through its official website dss.gov.ng. The group further stressed that decisions of the joint investigative committee were jointly agreed upon

Danlami said that as an agency that does not tolerate indiscipline as shown in the recent dismissal of no fewer than 115 staff for various offences, the DSS has shown itself to be above board.

AYA pointed out that since it had been established that Walida and her father had been communicating even under DSS protective custody, third parties should stop undue interference in the matter.

“It has been established that Walida made the first call to her father. The father and the daughter have been conversing, which is why the father requested her medical evaluation to ascertain her psychological state of mind,” Dandami declared.