By Francis Sadhere

Warri based Lawyer and human rights activist, Barrister Robinson Ariyo has advised the parents of Ese Oruru to get her some psychological support and allow her to pass through therapy that will enable her prepare for the court case ahead, noting that as the victim, Ese is the star witness that can provide ninety-nine percent of evidence needed in court.

Ese Oruru, before and after her abduction.

He said Ese must go through therapy before she will be allowed to go and testify as a witness in court because if she does not get psychological assistance she might destroy the case of abduction filed against the Yunusa Dahiru that was alleged to have kidnapped her.

Barrister Ariyo, who was a candidate for the Delta State House of Assembly, Warri South Constituency 1 under the platform of APC in the 2015 election, said from what he has heard so far, he was skeptical whether Ese Oruru was actually abducted or not, noting that there was so much mystery shrouding the whole case.

The legal practitioner who spoke to our correspondent in his Warri based Chambers, said until more information about the age of boy and the girls is given by the parent of the abducted girl the case of abduction against the boy might not sail through.

He said, “To complicate issues, Ese has reportedly made some utterances to the effect that she was not abducted, which rules out the case of abduction. Because if you say a particular victim suffered a particular injustice and the victim in question comes out and say I did not, then you have to rule out the case of abduction.”

Barrister Ariyo said that there are so many questions about the case that have remained unanswered till date, adding that if the girl was abducted as claimed by the parent, how come no one heard anything about the issue until after six months.

He said there was more to the story than meets the eye, advising that Nigerians should look beyond the smoke screen and look at the matter critically and objectively before jumping to conclusions.

“The fact is that, what we have heard so far is what we have read in the pages of newspapers and social media. There are couple of possible scenarios and possible question. For instance, what is the age of the two people involved? Under what circumstance did they do what they did and who and who aided them to do what they did? If we are able to resolve these questions then we will now be able to look at the legal implications,” Barrister Ariyo said.

He lamented that the case of Ese Oruru has been received with religious and political undertone without people looking at facts made available to the public, adding that Yunusa according to reports, was well known by the parents.

Barrister Ariyo said, “The question we will want to ask is that, if Ese was abducted for six months and we heard nothing of the abduction until after six months, it cast a doubt as to whether or not, truly it was a forceful movement of person from Bayelsa to the North. Bear in mind that the distance between Bayelsa and Kano is very vast. So I choose to believe that it would have been the case that Ese voluntarily choose to go with the young man to the North to explore life in the North. Or you could say that Ese was drugged. But again if you say that Ese was drugged, the very moment Ese left home nothing was heard – to me it would take an irresponsible child to leave home for six months without any alarm being raised. I have not read in the papers that, six months ago, Ese was declared missing.”

He said that for Yunusa to be able to take Ese out of Bayelsa to Kano state, he must have had some people who must have assisted him, adding that on his own Yunusa would not have been able to carry out the plan without the collaboration of other people.

Asked what advice he had for parents, Barrister Ariyo said parents must monitor the movement of their wards so that they would be able to know where they are at all times, stressing that parents should be able to read the mood of their children at all times.