A 16-year-old girl (name withheld) from Kogi State has been abducted and forced into marriage in Orun-Ekiti, Ekiti State, by a traditional chief to mark his chieftaincy installation rite. She was allegedly taken away from her parents under the pretense that the traditional ruler of the Orun-Ekiti wanted to see her.
The girl, now in the custody of the Ekiti State Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Empowerment, was said to have been kept secretly for seven days by the chief before the state government came to her rescue. Ekiti State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Gender Empowerment, Mrs Fola Richie-Adewusi said the action was against the state Laws on Gender Violence Prohibition and Child Right.
The chief, who allegedly abducted the girl, allegedly approached the parents with a horse tail believed to be an authority from the monarch of Orun-Ekiti, saying the girl was needed in the palace. Speaking on the issue, the Women Commissioner disclosed that the alleged chief only wanted to use his little wealth to oppress the poor and forcefully marry the little girl without the parents’ consent.
The chief, according to the commissioner, has been arrested but released on bail while the government has started the process of legal action against him. When we met the Oloja of Orun-Ekiti, Oba Osalusi Oluwasola, explained that the chief came to him that he has gotten an “Abokoaye†(a young girl that a man who is a about to get chieftaincy title must have before the rites could be completed) and that the monarch should give him an authority to bring the girl to the palace.