Mallam Elopes With 11-Year-Old Girl, Claims Love At First Sight

• Tells Police I wanted her for marriage 

The Police Command in Kano State has arrested an Islamic teacher, Yashir Abubakar, who disappeared with an 11-year-old girl (name withheld), claiming that he fell in love with her at first sight.

Abubakar told the police that having fallen for the girl, he took the step as part of his plans to marry her eventually.

However, Police personnel traced the suspect and arrested him in Kebbi State after the girl’s father reported that her daughter, aged 11, living with him in Kano could not be found.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer in Kano, Superintendent of Police (SP), Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, the girl’s father said the suspect, aged 38, asked his daughter to accompany him to a place, which he approved of, with his belief that he was a Quranic teacher.

The PPRO, who gave the details of the arrest, explained that the father further said since then, his daughter’s whereabouts had been unknown.

Also, Kiyawa said Abubakar, who claimed to be a Quranic teacher, was found to have obtained money from people under false pretences to the tune of over a million Naira, and had lured the 11-year-old girl when he wanted to escape to Kebbi State.

The report was said to have made the acting Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Finance and Administration, Abubakar Zubairu, to detail policemen to track him.

The police spokesman said he was eventually found at Yauri in Kebbi, arrested and brought back to Kano, noting that when Abubakar first came to Kano, he was with a girl called Wurera whom he claimed to be his wife.

Kiyawa said findings revealed that Abubakar and Wurera were not a legitimate couple but staying together as lovers, prompting the acting Commissioner of Police to direct that the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.

Speaking in an interview, the Quranic teacher expressed regret at the step he took without thinking of its consequences, saying that as a Mallam, he moved from Zamfara State, his state of origin, to Warri in Delta State where he took Wurera and stayed for about eight months.

Giving the age of Wurera as 21, he admitted not being married to her traditionally or in a religious manner, saying that he just picked her up to be acting as his wife.

Narrating how it started, Abubakar said; “My father was the one who taught me to be a Mallam. I also learnt the teachings from a Mallam in Gusau for two years.

“I came from Warri to Tundun Wada in Kano where my uncle lives. I rented a place and was staying with Wurera whom I made my uncle and others to see as my wife. I was helping goat traders to sell the animals so as to get some payment as a middle man. I was also engaged in Quranic teaching.”

On the 11-year-old he took away, he said that he admired her immediately he saw her. “I just fell in love with her with an intention to marry her, but I took her to Yauri in Kebbi State without the consent of her parents. However, I have not had any sexual relationship with her. I only enrolled her in a school,” he said.

Abubakar, who also admitted obtaining money under false pretence but did not specifically explain how he did it, regretted his action, saying that it was disobedience to his dad that brought about his predicament.

“I’m from a polygamous family. My father has four wives, but my mother is his first wife. I was having problems with him because of the other wives who always look down on and ridicule my mother.

“Whenever that happened, I would defend my mother but whenever the wives reported me to my father on the issues, he was not always happy with me, with him supporting the younger wives. At one point, he told me to leave his house, saying that I should go and establish a Quranic school somewhere since I had already been taught. That was why I left Zamfara.

“I regret all that I did. Staying with a woman without being married to her is a sin in our Islamic teaching,” the suspect further said in the interview, even as he advised other Islamic clerics having issues with their parents to go back and settle the differences.

The girl with whom he came to Kano, Wurera, in her explanation admitted not being married to the Islamic teacher but just staying together in the towns they visited.

According to Wurera, “I met Mallam when one of my friends told me that he was interested in me. My friend gave me his number and we started communicating. One day, I deceived my father that I was going to my maternal aunt’s place in Kano. My father knew I was lying but I convinced him.

“He was even the one who took me to the train station and paid my fare to Kano from Kebbi State. On getting to Kano, I linked up with the Mallam and we started living together as husband and wife. I didn’t know what transpired between him and the 11-year-old girl.

“All I knew was that he told me we were returning to Yauri in Kebbi. He picked the girl when we were going. But I didn’t see him do anything with her.

“My parents were not privy to his moves with me, and I knew that I had put myself in a big mess. He did not marry me properly and my parents didn’t know him.” – Nigerian Tribune report