Girl, 12, married off as 3rd wife in Benue rescued

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), on Wednesday, rescued a 12-year-old girl given out in marriage as third wife in Benue State.

Our correspondent reports that one Lucky Udu drew the attention of the agency through the social media to the plight of the girl whom he stumbled into around the Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Adaka community of Makurdi LGA.

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Udu stated that the girl was married off to a 50-year-old man by her family who deceived her that she was leaving home for school in the city of Makurdi.

He wrote on his Facebook page: “Unfortunately, she was brought down here (Adaka) to become his third wife. This man is a poor unsatisfied farmer who already has two wives and his children are above 22.

“He beats her every night and forces himself on her but only succeeded once in sleeping with her. It’s been two months now, she needs help, she is crying and wants to be rescued, but unfortunately, I‘m only a stranger here in Benue State, and for some days now I have been trying my best to rescue her through organisations like NAPTIP.”

The NAPTIP Commander, Makurdi Zonal Command, Mrs Gloria Bai, on Wednesday, told journalists on telephone that the girl had been rescued by the agency.

She said, “Yes; we have rescued her. We got this report from a concerned citizen, and contrary to the (social) media report that NAPTIP was ‘slow and unenthusiastic’, we swiftly went into action to search for the address where the girl was and when we got the address we planned to go first thing in the morning (Wednesday) so that we get both the man and the victim, and by 6am we were there.

“Unfortunately, the rain came in, we were able to rescue the girl, but the man had gone out. We are on it and our officers are already on surveillance to get the man as soon as he is seen.”