Walida, a young girl from Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State, for the first time, narrated her version of the story in an exclusive interview with Weekend Trust, at the DSS headquarters in Abuja.
Tell us your full name: Walida Abdullahi.
How old are you? I am 22 years old.
From which state?: Jigawa State.
My second wife never maltreated Walida—Father
How we got involved in Walida’s case – FIDA
Which local government? Hadejia.
Which area? Anku.
Where were you in school before all this started?: Yes.
Which school?: Papagoma.
Which class were you in?: Senior Secondary School 2.
Which year did you leave home?: 2023.
Why did you leave home?
One day, while in Anku, on my way to fetch water, I met a lady named Mariam. She asked me to follow her. She then took me to a house where I met four other people. I was the fifth, and later, another lady joined, making us six. One day, I fell sick. Mariam called a doctor, who diagnosed me with malaria. On the doctor’s recommendation that I should receive proper care, Mariam relocated me to her house in Gandu.
In Hadejia?: No.
Which town? I don’t know.
So you travelled by car? Yes.
Was it a long journey? Yes.
Did she blindfold you? No, she didn’t.
Before that day when she asked you to follow her, had you met her? No.
So, why did you follow her? I don’t know why…
You just followed her like that? Yes.
What were they doing at the first house she took you to in Hadejia?
I honestly don’t know. We weren’t alone in that house. There were different rooms inside the compound, but six of us stayed together in one room, all of us female.
How long did you stay there? I can’t really recall, but it was a long time.
So, what were you doing there? Nothing, Mariam wasn’t the one supplying food; another woman did that. Some people would come to see us.
Did they come to carry you away? No, they would only come to check on us.
Did they attempt intimacy with you? Yes.
And they did? Yes.
Were you being paid? No.
So, Mariam was collecting the money from them? I don’t know.
Before you found yourself there, had you ever engaged in such intimacy in the past? No.
After she took you to her own house, what happened?
Her husband, Abdullahi Isiyaku, had another wife named Fatima. They were beating me. Mariam claimed she was my mother and her husband was my father. She said my name was Chinasa.
Is Mariam a Muslim? No.
What about her co-wife? Yes, she is.
And they share the same husband?
Yes. Then, she asked me to run away. On my way, I met a soldier who asked where I was going.
What’s the soldier’s name? I don’t know. It was the first time I was meeting him.
Was he in a car or on foot?
He was standing by the road, dressed in camouflage and carrying a gun. When I told him, he took me back to them. They asked me to point out who told me to run, and I pointed at her (Mariam). They eventually put her in a car. They beat me and injured my head, then put me in a car and drove me to Abuja.
You mean the soldiers?
No, only one was a soldier. The others were Abdullahi Isiyaku (Mariam’s husband) and another man.
Which type of car did they drive? It was a big car.
When you came to Abuja, what happened?
We went to another house.
Which area?
I don’t know the name. The house had many occupants, all female. Some would go out and return, while others stayed indoors.
You mean they would go out looking for money?
I honestly don’t know, because I was always indoors.
Did they allocate a room to you? Yes.
Were you living alone in your room?
Yes, it was a self-contained apartment. They provided food and everything. I remained indoors until a day before Easter in 2024. I wandered on foot, not knowing my direction, until I met a tricycle rider (Keke Napep). I asked him to help me find my way, and he did.
He helped me get to the main street. I found myself under a bridge, wandering until I reached Airport Road. I sat near a market until dusk. I noticed people entering a place and followed them. That’s where I met a man named Sir Rochy from Kaduna. I asked him for food and water, which he kindly gave me. They asked where I came from, and I said Jigawa State. Surprised, they asked if I had walked all the way from Jigawa, and I said yes. When they asked if I knew where I was, I replied Jigawa. They corrected me, saying, “This is Abuja.” I spent the night there.
Do they have children? No, they don’t. They’re a couple.
Which area of Abuja?
Gossa. The next day, I sat behind a church and saw Ifeanyi (the DSS operative) passing by. I asked him for food. He gave me N1, 500 and showed me where food was sold. I bought some and took it to Sir Rochy’s house.
What’s the name of his wife?
I don’t know. When Sir Rochy returned, he told me to leave because they were vacating the house and didn’t know if I might cause them trouble. I went outside, not knowing where to go, and met Ifeanyi again as he returned from work. I followed him home without calling his name, since I didn’t know it yet. I knocked on his door, and he opened it. He asked a small boy, his landlady’s son, to interpret what I was saying. The landlady came and asked what happened. I told her my story. Ifeanyi asked my name, and I said Chinasa.
When did you get the name Chinasa?
Mariam gave it to me in Jigawa. They asked for my parents’ names, and I said Maryam and Abdullahi Isiaku. Then, Ifeanyi took me to his sister’s house.
In which area of Abuja was his sister living? Karmajiji.
Does she have a husband?
Yes. She asked my name, and I said Chinasa. She said she couldn’t accommodate me because they didn’t know where I came from, and advised Ifeanyi to part ways with me. But he refused, saying if it were his own sister in such a situation, he wouldn’t feel at ease abandoning her. So he took me back to his apartment.
What happened after you stayed together?
I lived with him until January this year.
So you became his girlfriend? Yes.
Did he force you, or was it with your consent? It was with my consent.
And you got pregnant for him? Yes.
And you gave birth to a baby girl? Yes.
What’s the baby’s name? Onyechi.
How did your parents find out your whereabouts?
On December 31, 2025, during crossover prayers, I had a severe headache, and my eyes turned red. Ifeanyi called his sister, who advised him to give me paracetamol. The next day, January 1, the headache persisted. I fainted, and when I regained consciousness, I asked him where I was. He was shocked. I told him I didn’t know him at all, and insisted that wasn’t the house I had been living in before. He begged me not to escalate the matter, fearing neighbours might intervene. I cried and asked for a phone to call my father because I wanted to go home.
He took me to his sister’s house and explained what happened. She called me Chinasa, but I denied ever bearing that name. She asked what my real name was, and I said Walida. I requested a phone to call my father. They asked if I could, and I said yes. She suspected I was afflicted, but I said I was fine. They gave me a phone, and I called my dad.
What’s your dad’s name? Abdullahi.
How did you get the contact information of your dad?
I had my dad’s contact details stored in memory.
So what did you tell him?
I greeted him, and when he asked who was on the phone, I replied, “It’s me.”
Then he asked, “Where are you calling from?” and I told him, “I’m in Abuja.” At that point, I burst into tears, and Ifeanyi’s sister took the phone. She asked him how long he had been searching for his daughter. He answered that he had been looking for her for over a year. She then said, “We thank God that she’s here with us.”
He asked her again, “Where are you now?” and she confirmed, “We’re in Abuja, as I mentioned earlier.” He then said that he had a brother in Abuja and that he was coming to see me. So, he sent his brother, and the brother came to meet me.
When he came, I asked my father to connect me with my mum on the phone. He told me she had travelled. Later, I called again, but he kept switching off the phone. I kept trying until my stepmother picked up. She asked who was calling, and I said, “It’s Walida.” I pleaded with her to give the phone to a boy so he could take it to my mum, but she said no one was there except a small boy named Muazzam, who was asleep. I begged her again, but they switched off the phone.
I kept calling until finally my dad answered. He said, “Let me tell you the truth. You abandoned your own mum—she has passed on.” I broke down crying, and when I regained consciousness, I remembered everything. That same day, my father’s brother, Badamasi, was called. I was asked if I knew him, and I said yes, he’s my uncle.
As soon as he arrived, he started fighting me, claiming he had picked me up in Suleja to take me to his house. I denied it. He asked if he was lying, and I said, “No, you’re not lying, but you didn’t pick me up in Suleja.”
Then Victor, who was at the gate of Ifeanyi’s sister’s house, came and explained everything. He said I now had a baby girl with Ifeanyi and asked what should be done. My uncle said he didn’t know. Victor suggested that Ifeanyi should marry me, but my uncle rejected the idea, saying only a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman, not the other way around. Victor told him that I had said I wanted to marry Ifeanyi.
My uncle then insisted I go with him, but leave my baby girl behind. Victor opposed this, pointing out that the baby was barely a month old and needed breastfeeding. He warned that the baby could die if abandoned, but my uncle showed no concern. Victor added that people had said my father had been searching for his daughter for over a year, yet he didn’t seem happy to see me. My uncle replied, “If it’s this girl (pointing at me), I would rather see her dead than alive.”
He insisted that I should follow him, but I refused. When I remained firm in my refusal, he said that if he were my biological father, he wouldn’t hesitate to give me away as a gift to others. Victor interrupted, pointing out that human beings can’t be given away like objects. He replied that there was a caveat in his words: he had said if he were my biological father.
What does he mean by giving you away? I don’t know.
So, at what point did your father come to Abuja?
At that moment, he was called on the phone and informed about my situation. The phone was handed to someone who could speak Hausa, and they spoke to my dad. My dad said he couldn’t say anything since his brother was present, and he was okay with any decision taken by his brother. Then my uncle claimed that Ifeanyi kidnapped me and converted me to Christianity.
Where did he go to make such statements?
It was sent to him on the phone. From there, we were summoned to this (DSS) office.
When you came here, did your dad come to the DSS office? Yes, he did.
Did you see him? Yes.
Did you talk to him? No.
Why? When he came, I greeted everyone. Then I was asked to narrate all that happened, and I told it exactly as I am narrating to you now. They insisted that I was being guided to tell my story, but nobody told me what to say. Nobody even knew until I was summoned to give my testimony.
So why did you refuse to follow your dad? Because I wasn’t staying with him even before this happened.
Why? I was staying with my mum.
But you earlier said he should connect you to your mum on the phone? Yes, but he said my mum was dead.
Was she staying with him when she passed on? No.
So, they were separated? Yes.
Was she living nearby? Yes, within walking distance.
After their separation, whose custody were you under?
My mum’s… So, she carried you along after the separation?
No. Even before she separated from my dad, I was living with my maternal grandmother. My mum later joined us. After school, I would sometimes stop by my dad’s house, and he’d give me some money. But after he married a new wife, he said my grandmother couldn’t take care of me, so he took me back to his house. He even insulted my grandmother before taking me. When I moved in, his wife would always beat me.
Why would she beat you? Were you stubborn? Hmm… just leave it as you hear it.
Is that why you followed Mariam in the first place? No, that wasn’t the reason. At that time, I was staying with my mum.
Now, what specifically do you want, since you refused to follow your dad and your uncle, Badamasi, and now you’re in the custody of security agents?
I won’t follow them.
Do you want to continue living under the custody of the authorities? Not at all.
Then what do you want? I just want to live with Ifeanyi.
Do you love Ifeanyi? Yes.
And you want to go back to him? Yes.
Is he the one who converted you to Christianity? No.
Who converted you? Nobody.
Was it during your stay with Mariam?
No, she didn’t force me into Christianity.
If you’re asked to revert to Islam, would you?
No, I can’t.
So your only choice is to be connected back with Ifeanyi? Yes.