A very vocal faith-based group, the Ecumenical Youth Association has said Christian leaders’ silence is no longer gold in the face of fierce persecution of Christians in the northern region of Nigeria, most especially orphans.
The group appealed to Christian and church leaders to de-emphasize denominationalism and emphasize love and unity in the Body of Christ that, it’s only by so doing, a united and purposeful front can be forged to confront the evil forces that are trying to defile the Body of Christ in Nigeria.
The Ecumenical Youth Association expressed anger and displeasure over the revelation from a petition addressed to the USA ambassador and signed by Emmanuel Ogebe Esq., the Special Counsel for the Justice for Jos Project by the US Nigeria Law Group alleged that Kano State Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development, Zahrau Muhammad Umar is using her office to abuse and Islamize orphan Christian minors.
Their statement reads:
It’s with great concern, grave sadness, and bleeding heart, we plead with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and all our Christian and church leaders to stand up and take serious action against the high level of Christian persecution in the northern region of Nigeria, most especially, the forceful conversion of Christian minors.
This is coming on the heels of several reported and unreported cases of Christian minors being taken out of Christian orphanages or homes to either Muslim orphanages or married Muslim men, and their names and faith forcefully change.
According to Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe Esq., Special Counsel US Nigeria Law group, over a dozen children were unjustly taken away from two Christian mission orphanages in Kaduna and Kano and detained in a Muslim orphanage in Kano for the past two years.
This is completely unacceptable and the body of Christian needs to not only just pray against it but also angrily speak and act against such satanic move against the body of Christian in Nigeria. Jesus said in the Bible, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Matthew 18: 16. Are our church leaders failing in this regard? Are the gates of hell prevailing against the church in Nigeria? God forbid that it’s.
We appeal to CAN and all Christian and church leaders to investigate and act accordingly on the well-detailed petition below sent to the USA embassy in Nigeria by the US-Nigeria Law Group and signed by Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe Esq., its Special Counsel.
The petition reads in full below:
“Dear Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard,
SUBJECT: Kano State Commissioner’s vacation in the USA while holding Christian orphans in detention for third consecutive Christmas
Compliments of the season.
We’re gravely concerned to learn that, in addition to the Governor of Kano State’s visit to the US last month, his Commissioner for Women Affairs also vacationed there as well.
Like Governor Ganduje, Commissioner Zahrau Umar is wholly undeserving of a U.S. visa based on disturbing reports of child abuse, human rights abuses, and religious freedom abuses amongst others.
Over a dozen children were unjustly taken away from two Christian mission orphanages in Kaduna and Kano spent yet another Christmas in a Muslim orphanage in Kano while the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development Dr. Zahrau Muhammad Umar and her children reportedly enjoyed Christmas in America.
In a Christmas day raid, 19 children were first seized from the Kano branch of Du Merci orphanage and taken to Nassarawa Orphanage Kano on 25th December 2019. Some of the children have remained in Kano State’s custody for two years now and marked their third Christmas in captivity last month on Dr. Zahrau Umar’s orders.
The Police and NAPTIP, a United States taxpayer-funded agency, traveled to the Du Merci Orphanage in Kaduna state where another eight persons were abducted on 31st, December 2019. Some of them also marked two years of captivity on New Year’s Eve barely two weeks ago.
Confidence, Peace Snr., Devine, Comfort, Destiny Jnr., Destiny Snr, Sarah, and Elizabeth were taken around 4.30 pm to Women Affairs Office in Kaduna and kept in a Lite Hiace bus with criminals whom NAPTIP had arrested for several hours before setting off to Kano by 8.00 pm. They were denied food despite the cries of the traumatized children throughout the journey to Kano.
On arrival at Bompai Police Station Kano, around 12.15 am on 1st January 2020, they were kept in a reception hall without mosquito netting or windows and they suffered hunger, cold, and mosquito bites throughout the sleepless night of anguish and crying.
It was in the morning around 9.00 am that the Investigation Police Officer (IPO) DSP Mati on resuming duty found out that NAPTIP brought eight people from Kaduna to his office in Kano.
DSP Mati reportedly chided NAPTIP officer Misbau Iyya Kaura whom he earlier engaged in a confrontation not to bring them from Kaduna to Kano. At that point, DSP Mati promptly sent for bread and tea which the eight captives couldn’t eat due to lost appetite from prolonged hunger and trauma.
Despite DSP Mati’s outrage for the way they were maltreated, they remained at Bompai Police station till around 6.00 pm in the evening without eating food for over 26 hours since they were taken from Kaduna.
They were also transferred to Nassarawa Orphanage and the adult captives were told to fill forms with their names, ages, etc while the Policemen filled the forms for the minors. At this point, it was officially on record that some of those taken were not minors but full-fledged adults. However, the adults were detained in the orphanage nonetheless.
A few days after, the combined 27 abductees from Du Merci Children were harassed to stop singing and praying and called names by the original occupants of the Nassarawa orphanage.
The attention of the Director of Nassarawa Orphanage has been sought who in turn informed the Commissioner of Women Affairs Dr. Zahrau Mohammed Umar. The Commissioner arrived with her son, a policeman, a plainclothes man, and with the Orphanage staff, instead of settling the matter between Du Merci and Nassarawa children, the Commissioner and Director blamed the Du Merci children.
When they requested that if she didn’t want them to observe their Christian prayer and praises at the Nassarawa Orphanage, she should free them to return home to Du Merci Orphanage, she refused that Du Merci Orphanage is “illegal.”
When informed that it was legal and certified by the proper Government regulatory agencies, Commissioner Umar took offense that they were accusing her of lying.
She then insulted them in the Hausa language as “sons of nobody” (or “bastards” in English).
When one of them replied that he is not a bastard because he has a mother and a father the Commissioner’s son held his neck very tight attempting to strangle him. Although he was finding it difficult to breathe, one of the men who accompanied Commissioner Umar in plainclothes held his arm behind him while the Policeman was slapping him on the face.
At that point, one of the original Nassarawa Orphanage boys used the brutalized boy’s phone and recorded what happened. However, after the incident occurred, all phones were confiscated.
Women Affairs Commissioner Zahrau Umar then cursed the orphans saying “your mothers are prostitutes” and commanded the Police to take and lock them up at Bompai Police Station.
The following:
Sarah aged 31, Michael 21, Blessing 23 and her 8 months baby, Emmanuel Jnr 16, Joseph 16, Confidence 16 and, Peace 15were driven down to Bompai Police Station, per Zahrau Umar’s orders with no lawful warrant of arrest of the adults or court order and without any criminal complaint or allegation and in abuse of her office and in excess of her jurisdiction.
Fortunately, the officers once again objected to the dumping of innocent children in their station, and the Police who conveyed them were ordered to return them to Nassarawa Orphanage.
The Commissioner had left with their phones and deleted all vital evidence in the phones including the torture, beating, and brutalization of one of the Du Merci boys, and returned them after six months.
The Ministry of Women Affairs abandoned two sick kids in a private hospital and in 2020 released another eight (ages 15-22 years) children to the Christian Association of Nigeria because the children were protesting not being allowed to attend church or school. The eldest detainee, a university graduate, who was caring and advocating for the younger ones was kicked out of the Nassarawa Orphanage in December 2020 after she reported the burning of one of them.
The lady who was taken from Kaduna to Kano just days before her wedding, lost her relationship after her fiancé was denied access to her during her one-year captivity.
We urge you to suspend US funding for NAPTIP programs in Kano and Kaduna states until the Du Merci children are released, compensation paid them and disciplinary action taken against Misbau Iyya Kaura.
Ambassador, you will agree that US citizens will find it unconscionable that their taxes are used to fund persecution of Christians and abuse of children.
It is even more disturbing that the government is operating like bandit kidnappers or even worse.
As reports indicate that the family of underpants bomber Mutallab recently visited him in the US, we must truly ask how seriously the issue of who comes to the US is being taken.
This is all the more important as Mutallab’s father honorably reported to your embassy that his son was a terror threat but yet he ended up on a flight to Detroit.
We urge you therefore not to similarly ignore this strong appeal which is based on actions of those with no respect for lofty universal ideals of democracy, human rights, religious freedom, or good governance but who like to gallivant to countries that respect the same while disregarding theirs at home.
