THE OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE OF THE HAUSA CHRISTIANS FOUNDATION ON THE FREEDOM OF JENNIFER YOHANNA A 15 YEAR OLD CHRISTIAN GIRL FROM PAMBEGUA KUBAU LGA, KADUNA STATE NIGERIA THAT WAS KIDNAPPED, FORCEFULLY CONVERTED TO ISLAM, ABUSED AS A MINOR, MARRIED OFF WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF HER PARENTS, AND DEPRIVED OF HER RIGHT TO FINISH HER SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, AND EVEN DROVE AWAY AS WELL AS THREATEN THE LIVES OF HER PARENTS FOR INSISTING ON HER RELEASE!
Grace and Peace of Christ be Multiplied unto all the Saints! Amen!
We are grateful to Yahweh for enabling us to see a historic day as this as Christians living in Northern Nigeria. We appreciate God for granting us the privilege of helping our beloved Sister Jennifer to regain her freedom after 8 months of living in Islamic bondage, and not only denied her the access of being with her family but forcefully Islamized, converted her to Islam and even married her off as a minor all without the consent of her parents.
We appreciate God for bringing her back alive against all odds. Many girls who experienced these evil treatments never came back alive. Despite all the damages done to her and the abuses she went through, we remain grateful to God for keeping and wiping away the tears off the face of her parents for these painful 8 months.
On the 19th of June, 2018, the Hausa Christians Foundation (HACFO) made public to the world what Jennifer and her family found themselves in. The hostility, the abuse and the inhuman treatment these people went through is simply for their faith in Christ Jesus. Two years ago (2016), Mr. Yohanna Matthew Shagari’s younger sister Blessing was kidnapped and converted to Islam by some of the Muslims of Pambegua in Kubau LGA, Kaduna State Nigeria. Despite all the threats and harassments he faced, Yohanna insisted for the return of his beloved sister, and God so kind, he secured her freedom with the help of the then Divisional Police Officer of Pambegua after 21 days in captivity. Even though they came after her to kill her for their claim of her committing apostasy (going back to her original Christian faith from the Islam she was forced into), Yohanna still stood his ground and God saw them through unhurt. Ever since then, the Muslim community of Pambegua vowed to severely deal with him for being anti-Islam just because he fought the injustice done to his sister who was kidnapped, converted to Islam and detained against her wish and that of her parents and family. One might think that things must have normalized after the two years of such an incidence. That thought is however, nothing but a costly assumption that has brought pain to the entire family of Mr. Yohanna when he and his family became relaxed with them. They continued their daily lives thinking all is well but little did they know that there was an underground plan to inflict a terrible pain that no parent will ever wish to have; a plan to forcefully kidnap his biological daughter, convert her to Islam, abuse, molest and treat her as a sex slave and then marry her off to another Muslim against his wish. Why will they want to do such a terrible thing to him? Simply because he fought for the freedom of his own biological sister who has been abused and terrorized by them two years ago. According to them he has stood in the way of Islam, he is anti-Islam and he must be crushed. That was the fate of Mr Yohanna and his family at the moment. They have kidnapped his 15 year old daughter, converted her to Islam, hypnotized her, married her off to their Muslim brother, denied her parents access to her, displaced Yohanna’s family from their home and went hunting after his life to kill him for insisting for the return of his own daughter.
On 1st January, 2018 the family of Mr Yohanna Mathew Shagari met with the most trying moment of their lives when their beloved first child Jennifer was kidnapped from their own house by one Abubakar Salisu, in a well-organized plot to torment the entire family. When Mr Yohanna was not listened to when he reported the matter to the Divisional Police Station of Pambegua, he then went and reported the matter to the Zaria Area Police Command. After 15 days of kidnapping, detaining and abusing Jennifer, she was released back to him on the condition that he must allow her to practice Islam.
When Jennifer whose name was changed to Zainab returned back to her parents she came back in such a pathetic condition. She was hypnotized to the point of running mad and when she returned home she was threatening to do Jihad on her mother, because according to her, that was what they asked her to do. On observing the condition of his daughter, Yohanna took her for some rehabilitation. That very night she went for the rehab one Muslim cleric from Zaria by name Mallam Abdullahi Baba of JIBWIS mobilized more than thirty Islamic militants and stormed at Yohanna’s residence shouting with a public address system to return Jennifer or face the consequences. They continued until around 2am midnight. When they discovered that Jennifer was not at home, they left back to Zaria. Jennifer stayed at the rehab center for two weeks because of the terrible condition she came back with.
When Jennifer returned from the rehab center to be with her family on 1st February 2018, in the middle of the night, Mr Yohanna’s brother who is a Muslim connived with some of the Muslims and came and took Jennifer out of the house through the window of her grandmother where she sleeps, without her parent’s knowing. That was the last time Mr. Yohanna Matthew Shagari and his family saw their daughter. Even when they later found out where their daughter has been kept, the Police and other relevant authorities didn’t do anything to help them when they reported to them severally. That was how this family continued to wallow in pain for losing their daughter forcefully with only God to help since the constituted authorities were not willing to act accordingly. They continued in prayers and fasting and trusting God to return their daughter back to them, God so kind, on Wednesday 14th June, 2018, Jennifer came back home, but some Muslim women came and forced her back to where she was kept and married to. When her mother was informed of what’s going on, she went to the house to see her daughter even though she was heavily pregnant. When she enters the house where Jennifer was detained, lo and behold she saw Jennifer who was willing to follow her home. When they were coming back home, the Muslims youths came in mass and beat up the pregnant mother to collect back Jennifer and then Mr. Yohanna came and rushed into the house to rescue his wife and his daughter. The youths over powered him, beat him up as well and collected Jennifer back. On seeing the situation of things, Jennifer’s parents had no option but to return home without their daughter.
To their surprise, these youths came and followed Jennifer’s parents’ home and began to stone them and were also heavily armed with weapons to kill Mr Yohanna for touching his daughter (who is now a Muslim as they claimed) and also for entering a Muslim’s house as an infidel. When Yohanna’s father came and pleaded with them, they also beat him down. That’s how Yohanna had to leave his own house and escape for his life together with his wife and children.
After reporting the matter to the Hausa Christians Foundation, we took the matter up to the necessary authorities and ensured that Jennifer was released and reunited back to her family. To the Glory of God, the Kaduna State Police command helped us with other partners to secure the freedom of Jennifer.
Right now, Jennifer is with her family, and she is willing to continue with her studies and become a medical Doctor.
POSTSCRIPT:
There is an urgent need for the Church of Nigeria to be enlightened and be empowered with the necessary information to secure the lives of our women especially our Christian Girl. The Hausa Christians Foundation is willing at any time to speak and enlighten any Church or Christian group on how best to live in Northern Nigeria especially in a time like this. If your group or church is interested, please kindly contact us for further arrangements.
What we are experiencing as Christians in this country is the intensity of the war declared on the kingdom of God by that of the devil. We are however, not fighting this fight for victory; we are instead fighting from victory. It is a good fight because we already know our results before the fight itself. In all these, we are more than Conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord.