Underage Christian girls being forcibly married, converted to Islam in northern Nigeria

On March 29, 2024, 15-year-old Cecilia Mathias and her elder sister, Mariamu, were doing brisk business selling corn at the local weekly market in Goge village, Fika county. The money they made helped augment the small income of their father, Mathias Yusuf, 54, an elementary school teacher.  

Suddenly realizing that Cecilia was running late for an evening class, Mariamu told her sister to return home and get ready for school. But Cecilia never made it home.  

“When Mariamu returned home from the market without Cecilia, I was mad at her for leaving her sister behind,” said Esther Mathias, 48, the girls’ mother. “Little did I realize that something very serious had happened to my little girl.” 

After searching in vain for their daughter for two days, Cecilia’s parents filed a missing person’s case. To do this, they had to go to the Yobe State capital, Damaturu, since there is no police outpost in Goge village. 

Denied access to daughter 

“It took us three months to find out that Cecilia had been abducted, converted to Islam and kept in the home of an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Usman Umar,” Esther said. “Umar is the head of Yobe State’s Islamic council.” She explained that the Islamic council set up by the state government oversees the working of shari’a in Yobe. Yobe, in northeastern Nigeria, adopted Islamic law in 2000.

Shari’a law sets no fixed minimum age for marriage. 

According to Esther, Cecilia has been married off to a Muslim man called Umar Labi. This 58-year-old Islamic teacher has two wives already.  

“We made every effort to see our daughter but we were denied access to her. The police ordered that she should be released to us. But we were informed that she was under the care of the Yobe State Ministry of Islamic Affairs because she had newly converted to Islam and married a Muslim,” Esther said, her voice shaking. 

Contacted by telephone, Umar responded tersely to our correspondent’s questions.   

“Cecilia was brought to me after she willingly agreed to convert to Islam,” he said. “She is now a Muslim and she needs to be protected at this stage.” He then hung up. 

Not an isolated case 

The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Fika county, John Mamza, confirmed the abduction of Cecilia. 

“We are told that she is married to a Muslim man old enough to be her grandfather,” Mamza said. He added that CAN were doing all they could to bring her home.  

“It is not only her case we are dealing with here,” Mamza said. “We have other cases that involve many forms of abuse against our female children.” 

Rise in forced Islamization, marriage 

At a joint press conference held on July 23, the Kaduna State chapter of CAN and a Nigerian NGO called the Stefanos Foundation raised the alarm over the abduction of a growing number of underage Christian girls in northern Nigeria. The abducted girls are forcibly Islamized then married to Muslim men without the consent of their parents.  

“Forced marriage, adoption and conversion of Christian girls in northern Nigeria is real and is on the rise,” said CAN Kaduna State Chairman Rev. Bulus Ibrahim Daga. 

Abraham Hassan of the Stefanos Foundation shared the story of Godiya Musa, a 16-year-old Christian girl from Giwa county in Kaduna State. Godiya was reportedly abducted from this overwhelmingly Muslim area in May, by men connected to the Emir of Katsina. She is said to now be married to a Muslim man. 

“She is still with her captors and we hope that this press conference will assist us reach relevant bodies all over the world to help us to recover her and others in the same situation,” Hassan said. 

“We have many cases on the ground right now,” said Daga. “In Giwa alone, three other girls were recently abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and married off without the consent of their parents.”  

The practice of abducting underage Christian girls, forcibly converting them and marrying them to Muslims pre-dates the introduction of shari’a in the northern states. But it has become much more common since Islamic law came into force in these states in the year 2000, according to Yayok Peter, a pastor in Kaduna.  

Involvement of state governor 

There are even cases where the conversion of an underage girl has been facilitated by a state government. 

In a viral video in 2020, Abdullahi Ganduje, then governor of Kano State in Nigeria’s northwest, was seen leading a 14-year-old Christian girl through the process of conversion to Islam inside Kano State Government House. She was simply identified as “‘Becky.”’  

Ganduje is now the national chairman of the Nigerian ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

Luka Binniyat is an award winning journalist and writer. He is based in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria