A 12-year-old girl who was allegedly deceived into marriage by her family in Benue State, North-Central Nigeria has been rescued by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, NAPTIP.
According to reports the young girl who is yet to attain adolescent age was deceived into marrying a 50-year old farmer as his third wife by her family a few months ago.
It was further gathered that when the girl was being taken to the supposed husband’s house, she thought she was being brought to town for schooling only for her to discover on reaching the man’s house, that she had been brought to him as his third wife.
A human rights activist in Benue State, Ukan Kurugh, who was one of those that first broke the news about the girl’s predicament on the social media, says NAPTIP was alerted and the girl was rescued from the man’s house in Adaka in Makurdi, the state capital in the early hours of Wednesday.
Speaking on telephone to newsmen, NAPTIP Commander in Makurdi Zone, Gloria Bai, who confirmed the rescue of the young girl said preliminary investigation revealed that she had been in the forced marriage for about three months and the man had been abusing her.
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Bai explained further that the girl had been rescued and is currently in protective custody with NAPTIP, while efforts are on top gear to arrest the man.
“Yes we have rescued her. We got this report from a concerned citizen and contrary to the media report that NAPTIP was “slow and unenthusiastic”, we swiftly went into action to search for the address where the girl was and when we got the address, we planned to go first thing in the morning so that we get both the man and the victim and by 6am, we were there”, Bai added.
The NAPTIP zonal boss assured that the agency will carry out an in-depth investigation to know what the allegation is and how the girl came to be in his house adding that the girl will also be taken to the hospital for medical examination and she will undergo proper counseling.
She said investigations will be carried out to ascertain if he has contravened the law so he will be properly charged to court.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
