But no one will take any particular notice of this. “Emir of Katsina, others ‘abducting, forcefully converting Hausa Christian girls to Islam,’” News Express, April 19, 2021: The Federal Government must sanction Katsina Islamic
leaders for indiscriminate abduction and forceful conversion of scores
of Hausa Christians, especially girls of underage, to Islam, the
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety)
has said.
The chief culprits in the dastardly act, according to the rights
group, are the Emir of Katsina and the Islamic District Head of Kafur in
Kafur Local Government Area of the State, noting that this is according
a statement issued on April 15, 2021 by the Hausa Christians Foundation
(HACFO).
According to Intersociety in a statement by Emeka Umeagbalasi,
Obianuju Igboeli, and Chidimma Evan Udegbunam, there has been
indiscriminate abduction of scores of Hausa Christian girls and their
forceful conversion to Islam. The abducted Hausa Christian girls, who
are under the school age of 16, are also forced into early marriage done
outside the consent of their parents, Intersociety said.
The statement also disclosed that the indigenous Hausa Christians and
their communities in Katsina State “are made to go through hell by
Islamic authorities and supposedly secular security agencies in the
State just because they are Christians.” It named the affected Hausa
Christian areas in Katsina State to include a mixed Christian-Muslim
Community of Rafin Iyaka Sabuwar Kasa in Kafur Local Government Area and
Christian Community of Gidan Dandadada Rafin Iyaka, among others.
The Hausa Christians Foundation had in a recent statement mentioned
names of nine Hausa Christian girls and young women as having in recent
times been abducted and forcefully converted to Islam and forced into
early marriage by the named Islamic leaders.
Principally fingered are the duo of the District Head of Kafur
(Alhaji Abdulrahman Rabe) and the Emir of Katsina (Abdulmumini Kabir
Usman). The nine victims were named as Jamima Solomon, Christiana
Mamman, Deborah Habila, Phoebe Dankano, Rifkatu Markus (rescued), Saratu
Isah (was returned when she went mad after two years), Dije Yakubu
Nalami (abducted as a married woman, and returned when she died),
Rebeccah Ado (returned pregnant), and Aisha Mani (the latest abducted
and converted and currently in captivity).
The statement also lamented that any time the Christian Community
agitates against the injustice done to same, the Muslim youths will
violently go after them, threatening to burn down their churches and
houses.