Igbo Pastor,Emir At War For Converting Daughter To Islam

 Pastor Raymond Uzoechina, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) priest whose daughter, Charity’s conversion to Islam is raising dust may have to wait for a while longer to reunite with her. This follows the inability of the Governor of Niger State, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu to resolve the vexed issue.

Sunday Sun learnt that the governor could not wade into the matter as it was already before a High Court sitting in Bida, Niger State.

A meeting, which was called at the instance of the Deputy Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto, following a directive from President Goodluck Jonathan for an amicable solution to be quickly sought on the matter, resolved that nothing could be done until the case had been withdrawn from the court.

Addressing an emotionally charged gathering at Government House, Minna, the Acting Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Ibeto said the state decided to step into the matter because of the loud controversy it had generated.

“The case is in court and there is nothing we can do except it is withdrawn so that we can try and see how we can open a channel of mutual trust between the pastor and his daughter because the girl is afraid that something may happen to her back home.”

Among the people at the meeting, which lasted about two hours, was the former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure, and the National Secretary of  the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Another setback to the quick resolution of the matter is the ongoing 3rd Nigerian Bar Association Law Reform Conference holding in Minna, Niger State capital, which is  mandatory for every lawyer in the state to attend.

Pastor Uzoechina, father of 25-year-old Charity who converted to Islam had instituted a case in a Bida High Court seeking to bar a Sharia Court from hearing   his daughter’s case.

The suit and others slated for hearing at the court, Sunday Sun correspondent gathered, had been adjourned till September 17, 2013 for hearing, owing to the mandatory attendance of the conference in Minna by all lawyers in the state.

The pastor filed the suit on July 15, praying the High Court to bar the Sharia Court from entertaining the suit by his daughter, Charity (Aisha), on the ground that the Sharia Court lacked the competence and jurisdiction to hear it. An official of  the court told journalists that the case and others had been adjourned till September 17,  2013 for further hearing, as the courts in the state were going on their vacation from August 5 and  resuming on September 15.

Charity had dragged her father to a Sharia Court in Bida, in an attempt to seek its protection from her father over her conversion from Christianity to Islam, and to exercise her new faith without hindrance. The conversion of Charity now known as Aisha, to Islam early this year in Bida generated a lot of controversy as the father of the convert  accused the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar of abducting and hypnotizing his daughter in the bid to convert her to Islam. The lady at the centre of the controversy, Charity, who secured admission into Federal Polytechnic Bida to read Public Administration last year, however, said she converted to Islam out of her own volition.

Sunday Sun investigations both in Kwankwanshe and Bida showed that Charity appeared not to have had serious parental monitoring. As a mature girl in Suleja area, Charity kept friends who are mostly Muslims.

While she was studying at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida , for nine months, she did not visit nor was visited from home even during vacations.

A source disclosed that Charity was missing classes to the extent that her performance was so poor that nothing less than withdrawal was considered good enough for her by school authorities.

On one occasion when  father and daughter met since the issue of conversion started, Charity had reminded her father that after all he was born a Catholic and when he converted to Pentecostalism, nobody harassed him. On another occasion, Charity was said to have cautioned her father when he asked her to remove ‘this thing you are putting on’ (hijab, the Muslim veil)

Evangelist Udoh, a Minna-based human rights activist in an interview expressed sympathy  for  Charity’s father but said such incident would serve as a warning to Christian fathers who approach the issue of child upbringing with high level of liberalism.

If Pastor Uzoechina had left on a sad note on the two occasions he met his daughter, it was a different case when her  mother came to see her. Sighting her daughter, Mrs. Uzoechina stood up from her seat and embraced Charity with the hijab she was wearing and the two wept profusely.

Charity told her mother how well she was being taken care of and urged her mother to come and spend at least one week with her. She told her mother nobody was forcing her to embrace Islam.

“Mama, it’s a decision I willingly took. Nobody forced me and I think I am old enough to choose my religion. Mama please forgive me if I have offended you, forgive me,” she said.

It was in a bid to resolve the issue between father and daughter that President Goodluck Jonathan directed Governor Aliyu to investigate the matter and report back to the Presidency promptly.

To this end, the acting governor of the state, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto scheduled a meeting of stakeholders that included  CAN, Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), the Commissioner of Police, representatives of human rights groups and Charity herself.

A copy of  a letter, which was made exclusively available to Sunday Sun in Minna also revealed  that the Secretary of the Christian Pilgrims Welfare Commission and  his  Muslim counterpart  attended the meeting.

The letter reads in part “Following the recent development over the conversion of Miss Aisha Charity Uzoechina to Islam and media reports which have become a threat to the existing peaceful religious harmony and national unity, I wish to invite you to a meeting with the acting governor of Niger State, Honourable Ahmed Musa Ibeto, on Wednesday July 31, 2013 by 11 a. m at Government House, Minna.

“I wish to state that this meeting is at the instance of Mr. President, C-in-C who has directed the Niger State governor to ensure that all peaceful avenues be explored to achieve an amicable resolution to this lingering matter.”

It will be recalled that a media report alleged that the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar kidnapped Charity Uzoechina, then in ND 1 Public Administration at  the Federal Polytechnic, Bida. She was later withdrawn from the school due to poor academic performance.

Charity, 25, daughter of Pastor Raymond Uzoechina of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Kwankwanshe near Suleja in Niger State has faced opposition from her parents over her choice of religion.

She has told her parents that she is old enough to decide which religion to follow. Competent sources however revealed to Sunday Sun that in the process of running around seeking who to help her appeal to the authorities of the Federal Polytechnic, Bida to reverse the withdrawal order clamped on her, she visited the palace where she came in contact with the son of a highly placed royal father and in not too distant  time they became lovers and were already talking about marriage.

Before now, some highly placed personalities such as the immediate past governor of the state, Abdulkhadir Abdullahi Kure had intervened in the matter.