Politicians and our laws do not protect the girl-child —Ankio Briggs

Ankio Briggs, in this interview, comes down hard on all those involved in the abduction and sustained detention of Ese Oruru.   She insists that conscious efforts should be made to protect the innocence of the girl-child in Nigeria. Excerpts: When did you first  hear about the story of Ese?
I first heard of the Ese story on the 27th of February.   Unfortunately l am not very active on social media because it is abused in Nigeria otherwise l may have seen it a few days earlier. When l heard it l got in touch with my friend Morris Alagoa who confirmed the story and l then committed to be in
Yenagoa for the planned protest for Monday. When l got to Yenagoa l learnt that the protest was no longer holding as there has been assurances given that the child Ese will be released soon. That did not sit well with me, as she had already been in captivity since august 2015, so I got in touch with media houses, Radio stations, and Silverbird TV and Channels were following the story and l spoke with them. The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, President, Udenz Eradire, was in the studio as well, and the listeners who phoned in were very angry. The breaking of the story by Punch newspaper and the AIT story, as well as the persistence by other newspapers brought it to the notice of the world. My first reaction to the story was disbelief.   I always follow up stories and where necessary visit before l speak on any matter as l must be factual so that l don’t fly with incorrect or false information which will be embarrassing to say the least.   So, as the story unfolded l became angrier; the parents were helpless and fought hard as any loving parents will do, but they went through things they should not have gone through; they could have been killed; it is by Gods grace that they lived to tell the story and got their daughter back. The political and security system did not do enough, a serious crime had been committed against a child, you don’t consider political parties, friendship, title, religion or culture when a crime such as this has been committed. Thank God the issue is being resolved, but  as a woman, what does this say of respect for the  girl-child? As a woman and as one who grew up under the security and protection of family, community, culture and religion, where my rights were respected and upheld, I am horrified.   Times have changed, l was raised in a community where the old saying that a child also belongs to the community was effective, the sort of risk our children face today we hardly faced them when we were growing up.   As parents we have to work harder to protect our children. Today parents have to work, mainly away from the security of our communities, where everyone knows everyone; that is not bad, it is progress, but we have to put more efforts into securing our children – and when l say we l mean parents, law enforcement, and government. Our politicians must work with us, the electorate, to achieve these goals which are based on our rights, and our children’s rights. Failure to protect our children now will put us at risk later when they are in charge if we don’t protect them now.   We should not expect them to protect us later, it is an issue of responsibilities. We must hold up our own end now for them to hold up their own in the future. Are you in touch with the parents and if  so, what sort of interaction have you had? These parents ought to be highly commended, they fought hard to get their child back without knowing that the government and the law, and constitution owed them a responsibility to bring their child back. Going forward, how should the culprits be  dealt with? The way forward is that the parents, siblings, and Ese are all owed a high level of compensation as a deterrent to men old or young whose sexual appetite is to have carnal knowledge of little girls. All over the world this is a crime against humanity, the most venerable, helpless and weak amongst the strong.   Children can’t fight or speak for themselves therefore every adult must speak for them and fight for them. Any adult who harms a child, male or female, for any reason at anytime must be made to pay the highest price; a crime against a child is a crime against God. Our society, particularly our politicians and law do not respect children because if they did the Child Rights Act would have been domesticated by now. In Ese’s case all the rights of the child were denied her; all were broken by the people who stole her; the people who knew she was under-aged and married her off. She was raped, defiled, dehumanized and now, there is the claim that she is pregnant. If she is, she is a child, and has not matured to the age of carrying a pregnancy to full term, or giving birth the normal way a matured woman will do, and she, no doubt, would have received serious injuries to her reproductive system which has long lasting devastating medical implications. The father of the abductor, the so called village head, the Sahria council, the Emir of Kano, who has accepted he knew about Ese’s case and went ahead to refer to her at the age of 13 as Aisha a name the people who converted her to Islam gave her as against her birth name Ese, should be investigated. The constitution and laws of Nigeria is above everyone, no matter your religious, cultural or traditional tittle.   These have gone on for too long; people have married 13 years old from Egypt, and other areas of Nigeria.   It is not permitted by our 1999 constitution which is the only law in Nigeria, any other law is by the choosing of a group and no matter the justification, cannot be allowed to over ride our national laws, otherwise any group can write its own laws. All must be questioned and where they have broken the written down established laws they must be made to pay.