The Commissioner for Water Resources in Bauchi State, Nuhu Zaki, has denied claims that he abducted his 10-year-old biological daughter, Zainab.
He stated this while reacting to a petition submitted at the Office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Naijaonpoint understands that the alleged abduction is connected to a dispute over the custody of Zainab ensured between him and one Ikilima Manu Soro, the maternal grandmother of Zainab.
Speaking during an interview with newsmen in his house in Bauchi on Saturday, the politician wondered how a father can kidnap his legitimate daughter, whom he has both religious and constitutional custody over.
He explained that Zainab had lived with her grandmother following his divorce from her mother.
He said that after Zainab’s mother remarried, his daughter longed to be with her father and siblings.
The commissioner claimed that Zainab had pleaded with him (Zaki) that she did not want to stay with the grandmother anymore because she was no longer comfortable in her house.
He narrated that he was married to her mother under the Islamic law of marriage, but due to irreconcilable differences within the family, the marriage failed, and 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 politician 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.
He said, “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.
“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 the 29 children God has given him, no matter who is involved.