Explaining how his daughter got the marks, Ibrahim said: “I was
watching an Arab channel but she would not let me be with her cries. I
was enjoying the programme, but her cries kept distracting me. I was
provoked so I brought out my ‘charger phone wire’ and flogged her. My
first wife Aisha who heard her cries came out and was shouting at me to
stop. She was even angry and rebuked me for beating her like that. I
regret my action.
“The marks on my daughter’s body is not for
ritual purposes as wrongly insinuated by some people. I can never use my
child for ritual. It is unfortunate that my wife had to drag me to the
Sharia Commission because she has a grouse against me. We have been
having problems with her, but that is between us. Why should I go to the
extent of using my child for ritual? I only beat her as a father. I
don’t belong to any cult or secret society”.
Some
residents of the Tirwun, a suburb of Bauchi, where Ibrahim allegedly
carried out the beating of his baby were shocked to see Sahura with the
14 strange marks on her back. They called for thorough investigation
into the case so as to unravel the motive behind his action, and asked
for justice to be done.
His estranged wife Huwaila, mother of the
little girl, who believes there is no iota of truth in her husband’s
explanation is pleading with the commission to thoroughly investigate
the matter.
The couple were said to be having problems in their
marriage, making Ibrahim move to his house in Tirwin with his first
wife, Aisha leaving his second wife, Huweila with his parents. Huwaila
said her husband occasionally comes to pick Sahura to spend some time
with him since they were not living together.
According to her,
“My husband, his first wife and I lived with his parents at Bakin Kura
before he moved with his first wife to Tirwun, leaving me and my
daughter Sahura behind.
“But he occasionally comes to take the
baby to spend some time with him in his new place and bring her back.
One day he sent one Ibrahim to come and bring Sahura; this was around
one in the afternoon. But when they brought back my daughter, I noticed
something unusual about her because she kept crying and I wondered what
was wrong with her.
“When I checked her body, I saw some strange
marks all over her back”. Huwaila said she quickly rushed to the Bauchi
State Shari’ah Commission to lodge a complaint after she confronted her
husband who claimed he only flogged Sahura because she was disturbing
him with her cries.
The permanent Commissioner II of the State
Shari’ah Commission, Jibril Hassan, confirmed that Huwaila lodged a
complaint prompting the commission to summon the husband, adding that
the commission was investigating the issue and would charge the father
of the girl to court at the appropriate time. He also said that if found
guilty of the accusations leveled against him, the accused would be
charged to court.
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