Yunusa Dahiru, a Kano man fondly called ‘Yellow’ was jailed for 26 years after he was found guilty of child trafficking and sexual exploitation by a federal high court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. But seven years later, he was released from prison.
According to Nasiru Salisu Zango, a journalist with Freedom Radio in Kano, the convict was released today.
Yellow, a Bayelsa-based, was arraigned before the court after he reportedly eloped with the then 13-year-old Ese Oruru in 2015.
On March 8, 2016, Dahiru was arraigned before the Federal High Court on a five-count charge bordering on criminal abduction, illicit intercourse, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge which was read to him in pidgin English but on March 21, the first trial judge, Aliya Nganjiwa, granted him bail in the sum of N3m with two sureties in like sum, according to BusinessDay.
But Justice Jane Inyang of the federal high court, in July 2020, ruled that Dahiru was not guilty of count one which bordered on abduction.
The judge, however, found him guilty of child trafficking, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge.
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The case of Dahiru and Ese generated a lot of reactions in 2015 when it was first reported and went viral on social media. While he got some thumbs up from some northerners, Dahiru was chided by southerners.
Dahiru had earlier argued that Ese converted to Islam and he married her without her parents’ consent. He subsequently renamed her Aisha. Ese was later rescued by the police in Kano with a five-month-old pregnancy, allegedly belonging to Dahiru.
However, in 2020 the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal reduced the 26-year sentence but affirmed his conviction, adding that the convict will spend seven years behind bars concurrently. This was against the consecutive sentence passed by the federal high court.
