Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Joseph has been reunited with her parents after weeks of controversy surrounding her custody and disputed religious identity, following extensive deliberations at the Bauchi State Police Command.
Jennifer, a Christian teenager from Adamawa State, was released to her parents on Monday, SaharaReporters has learnt.
Her release comes after a series of controversial developments that had left her parents stranded in Bauchi as they sought to regain custody of their daughter.
The controversy first became public after Jennifer's mother, Saratu Daniel, from Ganye Local Government Area of Adamawa State, appealed to authorities to help recover her daughter, alleging that the teenager had been taken away and placed under the influence of an Islamic Da'awah group.
Saratu alleged that Jennifer had been introduced to Islam during a family visit.
After learning of this, she took her daughter to the Bishara Dole Christian Rehabilitation Centre in Bauchi for assistance.
She later alleged that a man identified as Abubakar, who had presented himself at the centre as a Christian convert, removed Jennifer from the facility and took her to the Da'awah group without the family's consent.
The family subsequently approached the Bauchi State Police Command, triggering an investigation and a series of meetings involving the parties.
SaharaReporters reported last week that Jennifer's parents had travelled from Adamawa to Bauchi after being invited by the police, expecting to take their daughter home.
According to the family's account, the Commissioner of Police had initially directed that Jennifer be released to her parents, but the process stalled after representatives of the Da'awah group objected to the handover.
Police then placed Jennifer temporarily under the Bauchi State Agency for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (BASOVCA), pending further deliberations.
The matter took another turn on Sunday, August 23, when representatives of Jennifer's parents, the Bishara Dole Ministry and the Da'awah group met at the Bauchi State Police Command.
Bishara Dole alleged that Jennifer was taken to an undisclosed location for about an hour before being brought into the meeting and asked to choose between her parents and the Da'awah group, with the ministry saying she chose the Da'awah group; raising questions about whether a minor should have been placed in such a position during a disputed custody case.
Police, however, denied that Jennifer was asked to make such a choice.
Police spokesperson SP Nafiu Habib told SaharaReporters that his role at the meeting was not to investigate the case but to gather information from the parties and understand how the command should relate with the media.
He said he had instead asked Jennifer, if released, whether she would prefer to live with her mother or grandmother, and denied preventing anyone from expressing their views, insisting the meeting was not an investigative session.
Reverend Mohammed Mohammed of The Gospel of Christ Must Be Preach International Ministry, popularly known as Bishara Dole, confirmed Jennifer's release to SaharaReporters on Tuesday.
He disclosed that police had detained Rev. Badamasi, a staff member of the ministry, over an allegation that he molested Jennifer while transporting her from her family home in Adamawa State to the ministry in Bauchi.
Mohammed described the allegation as "laughable," while insisting that the matter should be properly investigated.
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