ICC Note: The ongoing case of Ese Ororu brings into focus one of the areas of persecution in Nigeria the global media miss among the concentrated coverage surrounding Boko Haram. Ese is a 14-year-old girl from a Christian family whom a Muslim family abducted so that she would be converted to Islam and married off to their son. While debate in the Nigerian media rages on about whether the case represents an abduction or an elopement, the fact remains that Ese is 14 years old and her removal from her parents came without her consent. Forced marriage and forced conversion represent common means of persecuting Christians around the world from Africa, to India, and Pakistan, among other places.

By Moses E. Ochonu

3/8/16 Nigeria (AllAfrica) – In some sense, then, the menace of these kidnap-and-convert incidents involving underage Christian girls is galling precisely because it is new and departs radically from the familiar historical patterns of relations between proximate Muslims and Christians in the region. It must be understood as an offshoot of the over-politicisation of the religious space in Northern Nigeria, a fairly recent phenomenon.

A quick proclamation by way of introduction: Ese Oruru, Patience Paul, and their parents are not the villains of the kidnapping and conversion of underage Christian girls in Northern Nigeria. Blaming the victim is a form of re-victimisation, an exculpatory gimmick employed by those who, for reasons known only to themselves, do not want to confront or unequivocally condemn an egregious crime.

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