The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has convicted Yunusa Dahiru, the eloper of Ese Oruru, to 26 years in prison.
Oruru, a daughter of Charles and Rose Oruru, from Uwheru community of Delta State, reportedly eloped with her lover, Mr Dahiru who is popularly known as Yellow, to Kano State in 2015.
A 13-year-old at the time, Ese was reportedly forced into marriage, converted to Islam and renamed Aisha, a development that generated a lot of controversies.
Ese was later rescued by the police in Kano with a five-month-old pregnancy, allegedly belonging to Mr Dahiru.
Delivering the judgement on Thursday, Justice Jane Inyang, acquitted Yellow on Count one but jailed him five years (count two), seven years (count three) seven years (count four) and seven years, count five.
Speaking after the judgement, he lawyer to the defendant, Kayode Olaosebikan, expressed his displeasure over the pronouncement that the prison terms are to run consecutively, not concomitantly.
According to him, “though I’m not comfortable with the part of the judgment that said the sentence should run consecutively, we had some challenges during the course of trial.
“There were six other witnesses we needed to have called in this matter, two of them are resident here (in Bayelsa), four of them in Kano, but none of them was available.”
Mr Olaosebikan said that his client could appeal the judgment, especially because part of it ruled that the sentence should run consecutively.
Reacting, the prosecution lawyer, Samuel Njoku, described the judgement as “naked and simple justice”.
