Among the current crop of Nigerias security chiefs, perhaps none is as widely respected for his professional record as the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi. Since his assumption of office, he has been celebrated as a quintessential officerone who is neither a religious bigot nor an ethnocentric partisan. His track record in states like Bauchi and Kaduna reflects a man who understands the delicate fabric of our diverse society and has often supported Muslim communal activities with the same zeal he applies to national security.

It is precisely because of this high regard that I find myself profoundly bewildered. Why is it that this same leadership, credited with a commitment to due process, appears to be wavering in the face of a clear court order? I am referring to the case of Walida Abdulhadi Ibrahim, a young Muslim girl from Jigawa State, and the stalled prosecution of a DSS operative, Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, accused of her abduction, sexual exploitation, and forced conversion to Christianity.

This disturbing saga echoes the 20152016 Ese Oruru case. The nation vividly remembers how a teenage girl from Bayelsa was taken to Kano by Yunusa Dahiru (popularly known as Yellow), where she was allegedly converted to Islam and impregnated. The public outcry at the time was overwhelming. The media, civil society, and the international community demanded swift justice.

The Bayelsa State Government under Governor Seriake Dickson intervened decisively providing medical care, insisting on a thorough investigation, and ensuring prosecution. Yunusa Dahiru was eventually convicted and jailed. Ese Oruru received rehabilitation and later graduated from the University of Ilorin in flying colour

In my recent essay, From Ese Oruru to Walida: Unmasking Selective Outrage, I asked a rhetorical question that now feels prophetic: Would Walidas case attract the same moral panic? Or would it be quietly buried because it doesn’t fit a convenient narrative of religious persecution? My fears are being validated by the day.

A coalition of civil society and faith-based organisations recently raised the alarm in Abuja, accusing the DSS of violating a subsisting court order directing the release of 16-year-old Walida to her family. They specifically named DSS officer Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi as central to the allegations and called for his prosecution should any culpability be established.

A petition filed by Gamji Lawchain paints a disturbing picture: a minor allegedly abducted two years ago, held in unlawful custody, and denied access to her parents. Her father maintains that the trauma of this ordeal contributed directly to the untimely death of Walidas mother.

At the heart of the controversy is the DSS acting simultaneously as custodian and investigator a clear conflict of interest. Compounding this is a suspicious dispute over her age. While the family insists she is 16, there are attempts to portray her as a 22-year-old adult. An independent, document-based verification of her age is essential. Anything less would undermine the integrity of our child protection laws.

Strangely, a group known as the Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) has issued a counter message, claiming that she left home in 2023 and was taken by a woman called Maryam later identified as Chinaza who allegedly converted her to Christianity. The AYA leader, Salihu Danlami, further asserted that Walida underwent a mental evaluation and is stable and happy with her captor. Such claims overlook the well documented psychological phenomenon known as Stockholm Syndrome.

We have seen this before in the North-East; rescued Chibok and Dapchi girls have, at times, expressed a desire to return to their abusers after rescue from ISWAP/Boko Haram, exhibiting emotional bonds with their captors as a survival-driven coping mechanism. A girl who has been serially abused and impregnated outside of matrimony cannot be declared “mentally stable” by a youth group in a press conference. She requires clinical rehabilitation, not media interviews.

The DSS must comply fully with judicial directives concerning Walidas custody and potential reunification with her family. A neutral, independent inquiry into the allegations against the DSS operative should be conducted. If found guilty, he must face the full weight of the lawjust as Yunusa Dahiru did in the Ese Oruru case.

There must also be transparent verification of Walidas age through credible documentation and independent scrutiny. NAPTIP should assume a leading role, given the child-protection and trafficking dimensions.

Equally, the Jigawa State Government under Governor Umar Namadi must not remain on the sidelines. A decade ago, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa did not treat Ese Orurus case as someone elses burden. He intervened decisively and stood by the victim. Jigawa should do no less for Walida.

The media and the public must resist the urge to frame this matter in inflammatory religious terms. During the Ese Oruru case, northern traditional rulers and religious leaders were hastily accused of complicity. We must not repeat that mistake or allow this situation to be cast as a religious confrontation. Just as many argued in 2016 that Yunusas actions did not represent Islam, we must also acknowledge that the alleged actions of Onyewuenyi do not represent Christianity or the DSS.

We cannot afford another cycle of collective suspicion. Responsible communication not sensationalism must guide public discourse. This is not a religious contest. It is a child rights issue. Justice must never depend on religious identity.

If Nigeria is to remain a nation governed by law rather than sentiment, then institutions especially the DSS must uphold due process, transparency, and accountability. This case must follow the same standard of judicial openness and constitutional procedure that defined the high profile Ese Oruru investigation, which the police handled with commendable neutrality.

I therefore respectfully appeal to the Director General of the DSS to act swiftly, transparently, and in full fidelity to the rule of law. As a man of established integrity, he must ensure that justice is neither delayed nor distorted. Let it never be said that under his leadership, the law became a respecter of persons or uniforms.

In cases involving alleged child exploitation or forced conversion, justice delayed is justice questioned. Institutional integrity is measured not by rhetoric but by response.

What was good for Ese Oruru must, in the interest of fairness and equity, also be good for Walida.

Yushau A. Shuaib is the author of “An Encounter with the Spymaster” and can be reached via yashuaib@yashuaib.com.

The post To DSS Boss: What Was Good for Ese Oruru Must Also Be Good for Walida Abdulhadi appeared first on YAShuaib.

I have always resisted being dragged into ethnoreligious arguments. Not because the issues are trivial, but because many of the loudest voices in such debates are not merely passionatethey are fanatical. Some are so blinded by affiliation that they excuse injustice, flirt with heresy, or even justify violence in defence of identity. In recent months, especially after U.S. President Donald Trumps inflammatory threats against Nigerian Muslims over an alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria, I found myself losing respect for some elders, friends, and colleagues. Their positions were so reckless and prejudiced that I questioned whether our long-standing relationships had ever been grounded in sincerity.

It was against this background that recent media reports jolted my memory: a Department of State Services (DSS) operative, Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, had been arrested for allegedly abducting, raping, and forcibly converting a Muslim girl to Christianity. Instantly, my mind travelled back to 2016the traumatic case of Ese Oruru and Yunusa Dahiru, popularly known as Yellow. That episode dominated newspapers, television screens, social media timelines, and the commentary of self-styled influencers who fed hungrily on outrage.

In March 2016, precisely 10 years ago I intervened in that heated national debate with an article titled Ese Oruru: From Delta to Northern Savannah. (Link to the article:https://yashuaib.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-from-delta-creek-to-northern-savannah-by-yushau-a-shuaib/) Drawing from my positive 1992 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) experience in Delta State, I contrasted a past era of inter-ethnic openness with the poisonous divisions that surfaced during the Ese OruruYunusa Dahiru saga. Ese, a teenage girl from Bayelsa, and Yunusa, a young Kano-born artisan living in Yenagoa, became unwilling symbols in a storm whipped up by sensationalist media, political opportunists, and religious bigots.

My argument then was simple but unpopular: what should have been treated as a grave but personal criminal matteran ill-advised and unlawful teenage elopementwas irresponsibly reframed into a national crisis of religion and ethnicity. The case was weaponised. Hypocrisy flourished. Sectarian outrage drowned nuance. And anyone who urged restraint or perspective was branded a traitor.

The facts of that case are well known. Ese Oruru, a teenager, was taken from Bayelsa to Kano by Yunusa Dahiru, who claimed to be her boyfriend. She was allegedly forced to convert to Islam and married without parental consent. Following intense public pressure, she was rescued in 2016 while pregnant. In 2020, a Federal High Court sentenced Yunusa to 26 years in prison for child trafficking and sexual exploitation. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to seven years, accounting for time already spent in custody.

What received far less attention, however, was what happened afterwards. Yunusa reportedly completed his secondary education while incarcerated and was described by the Nigerian Correctional Service as a well-behaved and reform-minded inmate and was released in 2023. Ese Oruru, on the other hand, despite the trauma and stigma, returned to school and later gained admission to the University of Ilorin, from which she graduated in 2025. These outcomes did not erase the crime, but they reminded us that justice, rehabilitation, and human recovery can coexist.

Fast-forward to the present. The DSS has confirmed the arrest of its operative, Ifeanyi Onyewuenyi, following a petition alleging that he abducted a Muslim girl, Walida Abdulhadi, kept her in a DSS residence for two years, sexually exploited her, and forcibly converted her to Christianity. According to her family, they searched desperately for Walida during this period and reportedly lost her mother to the trauma. They only learned of her whereabouts when the suspect allegedly called her father on New Years Day 2026, claiming Walida had given birth to his child and that he intended to marry her.

The familys lawyers have rightly described the case as a grave abuse of office and demanded prosecution and an independent investigation of the DSS facility involved. To its credit, the DSS confirmed the arrest, condemned the alleged conduct as a violation of its code of ethics, and announced that a full investigation is underway, with assurances that findings will be made public.

And yet, here lies the uncomfortable question: where is the outrage?

Nearly a decade ago, Nigeria erupted over the abduction and alleged forced conversion of Ese Oruru, a Christian girl, to Islam. Today, a Muslim girl is alleged to have been abducted, raped, and forcibly converted to Christianity by a state security operative. Will this case attract the same volume of condemnation? The same moral panic? The same international attention? Or will it be quietly processed because it does not fit a preferred narrative?

When I wrote in 2016, I was almost crucified for refusing to dance to the drums of sectarian hysteria. Today, faced with a disturbingly similar incident, I find myself cautiousalmost hesitantto speak, knowing how easily principled arguments can be twisted into accusations of bias.

But silence, too, is a position.

Yushau A. Shuaib is the author of An Encounter with the Spymaster and can be reached via yashuaib@yashuaib.com.

The post From Ese Oruru to Walida: Exposing Selective Outrage in Child Sexual Exploitation Cases appeared first on YAShuaib.

Yushau A. Shuaib with Asagba of Asaba, Professor Chike Edozien in Asagba’s Palace on Sallah Day in 1993

“Daddy there is something else which bothers me. I’m in love with one charming young lady from this place (Southern Nigeria).”– YAShuaib December, 1992

The above quote were the exact words in my harmless and innocent “Open Letter to My Parentsin the North” during my youth service. The letter which was published in some national dailies was one of my articles published during the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) between 1992-1993 in Asaba Delta State.

Surprisingly, some contents of the Open Letter, generated controversies which prompted a rejoinder from the management of NYSC and a summon from Communication Adviser to Governor Felix Ibru, Chief Paulinus Akpeki for clarifications.

Meanwhile, the intervention of Asagba of Asaba, the traditional ruler of my host community, Professor Chike Edozie was the soothing balm that boosted my confidence to serve in Igboland in the Niger Delta. While the government officials and the traditional institutions ensured the safety of youth corps members, especially those from other parts of the country, I nevertheless sustained constructive engagements with the host community through my writings.

Faiths, tribe and culture were never barriers in the relationship between non-indigenes and members of the communities as inter-tribal marriages were prominent features of Delta people. During Islamic festivities, the traditional ruler organised special feasts for Muslims in his palace. On such occasions, Muslim youth corpers, mostly from Northern Nigeria were treated to bumptious meals and non-alcoholic exotic wine.

The generous hospitality of the people, encouraged some corpers to stay behind after the service year. I accepted an offered of automatic employment in the Government House, Asaba as Public Relations Officer after the service. The government of this predominant Christian state in its magnanimity also sponsored my Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca for Islamic obligations.

I was sincere with my reference to ‘young charming ladies’ in the Open Letter because of what I witnessed with my naked eyes. I must confess that before the end of the youth service, some of my colleagues, especially from the North had picked some of those damsels legally or otherwise as their partners which in some cases resulted to marriages.

While I could not confirm if all the female partners were over-age or under-age, since only parents can determine that, most of the ladies looked very mature, intelligent and responsible in every sense. At that period Non-indigenes and corps members were not treated with suspicions but dignified and respected by parents of those ladies who welcomed them to their abodes with open heart.

It is therefore, unfortunate the current unnecessary bickering over the allegations of abduction or elopement, as the case may be involving a young lady, Ese Oruru and a young man, Yunusa Dahiru who left Bayelsa State in the Creek of Niger Delta to Kano a core-Northern state in the Savannah.

After media reports on the alleged abduction, the police have taken over the case by flying the two young Nigerians from Kano to Abuja and later to Bayelsa State. Meanwhile the police have arraigned Yunusa in handcuffs for criminal charges of abduction of the teenager.

In between these periods, the family of the two young Nigerians were being quoted in the media exonerating their wards of any offence. Rather than douse the tension through fair and objective editorials and news contents, some media were busy aggravating the tense situation by provocative coverages of the event that tend to create divisions in the polity.

Some ridiculous reports claim that a popular traditional ruler encourages abductions of young girls from other parts of the country for monetary compensation including limousines and mansions for abductors. Another news item claims the abduction saga is to depopulate a particular region and increase the population of another region.

On the social media, the debate has shifted to abusive rancour with most disparaging derogatory remarks between Muslims and Christians as ethnic jingoists are fanning ember of hatred between Southerners and Northerners.

Meanwhile it has been discovered that Yunusa who had been in love with Ese took her to Kano and claimed that he had converted the young lady to Islam. The conversion seems to be a ploy by the young man to hoodwink his parents and members of his community to accept his proposal to marry the teenager whose age is right for marriage in some cultures.

The fact that cannot be denied is that Ese was neither a victim of ritualists who could have harvested her body parts for diabolic spirituality nor a victim of kidnapers who could have demanded for ransom payments. She was neither a victim of a slave master who exploits the vulnerable into child-labour nor a victim of wicked merchants of infancy who proliferate baby factories for money-making. Ese, and to some extent Yunusa are merely victims of infatuation, foolish love that went awry.

The infatuation exposes the hypocrisy of the selfish political elites and some misguided public commentators jointly playing to the gallery for the purpose of “notice me” with their unwholesome campaigns of ethnic chauvinism and religious bigotry. Rather than managing the saga towards national unity and cohesion, they escalate it with primitive preachment towards self-destruction.

The dirty politics of ‘hailers and wailers’ social media antagonism also came to play where every issue is argued around ‘Goodluck Jonathan’ as an embodiment of Southern Christians and ‘Muhammadu Buhari’ as a representation of Northern Muslims.

The sad reality drama should have encouraged patriotic Nigerians to sponsor a Nollywood movie with central theme of “Love from the Creek to the Savannah” towards promoting love, peaceful coexistence, mutual tolerance for a united country.

While we must condemn the abduction saga, we should not lose our sense of reasoning and decency. We should eschew sectional sentiments and encourage our youths to establishrelationship based on trust, love and respect.

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