The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has delivered the long-awaited judgement on Ese Oruru, a teenager reportedly abducted, taken to Kano State and forced into marriage by one Yinusa Dahiru.
The court, presided over by Justice Jane Inyang, sentenced Dahiru to 26 years in prison.
Jane acquitted Dahiru on count one but jailed him five years (count two), seven years (count three) seven years (count four) and seven years, count five.
The sentences, according to the judge, would run concurrently.
In August 2005 Ese, then 13, was abducted and whisked to Kano, ‘married off’ to Dahiru without her parents’ consent and forcefully converted to Islam. By the time she was found she was already six months pregnant.