Custody Saga: I didn’t Abduct My Biological Daughter – Zaki, Bauchi Commissioner

 From Paul Orude Bauchi

Bauchi State Commissioner for Water Resources, Honourable Nuhu Zaki has denied the allegation that he kidnapped his 10 year biological daughter, Zainab, over custody battle.

Reacting to a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Zaki wondered how a father could kidnap his own legitimate daughter whom he has both religious and constitutional right over.

The alleged abduction is connected to a dispute over the custody of, Zainab which ensured between him and one Ikilima Manu Soro, maternal grandmother of Zainab.

Zaki, in an interview with journalists in his house in Bauchi on Saturday, explained that his daughter, Zainab had lived with her grandmother following his divorce from her mother.

 He said after Zainab’s mother remarried, his daughter longed to be with her father and he siblings had pleaded with him (Zaki) that she did not want to stay with the grandmother anymore because she was no longer comfortable in her grandmother’s house.

He narrated that he was married to her mother under the Islamic law of marriage but due to irreconcilable differences with the family, the marriage failed as they had to get divorced.

“It was not my intention to divorce my wife because we loved each other but pressure from her family especially her two brothers and their mother did not make it work forcing her to leave the house,” he said.

The Commissioner commended the late father of the woman, Manu Soro, the Uncle, Musa and others who played roles to ensure that the marriage worked and even tried to remarry them after the first divorce but the three people stood against the arrangement.

Zaki while narrating the situation, said that he got judgment in his favour from three different courts, yet he was denied access to the girl even after the mother had remarried.

“Now that she is married to another person and my daughter, Zainab Nuhu Zaki is no longer comfortable staying with her maternal grandmother, she chose to stay with me and her siblings. What is wrong with that? Now they are running up and down for no just cause,” he said

“I did not kidnap nor abduct her, I only enforced the various judgments of the Courts and the Shariah Commission. Zainab Nuhu Zaki is my daughter and I have claimed her. She is now in a boarding school with three of my other daughters and nothing can change that.”

The Commissioner assured that he was ready to do anything legal and Islamic to protect any of his 29 children God has given him no matter who is involved, urging the family to stop chasing shadows for nothing.

He described the petition of child abduction against him by Iklima Manu Soro as baseless, unfounded and very unfortunate.