By Faith Chondol
In the quiet close-knit community of Kibiya Local Government in Kano State, Northwestern Nigeria, a young woman’s profound personal choice has become a battlefield. Her name is Ruth, popularly known as Deluwa. Her crime? Choosing to leave Islam, the faith of her birth, for Christianity. Her sentence? A campaign of relentless persecution, culminating in her being dragged away from her own wedding celebration by the Hisbah Islam religious task force, who now threaten her with death if she does not recant.
Ruth’s story is a stark test of Nigeria’s soul and its commitment to its own constitution.
At 19, after a three-year period of reflection, Ruth concluded she could not find the spiritual salvation she sought in Islam. Exercising her fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion—a right enshrined in Section 38 of the Nigerian Constitution—she walked into a local church, professed her faith in Jesus Christ, and was baptized. She was 22, an adult by every legal standard, when she made the joyful decision to marry a man named Silas.
What should have been a season of celebration became a nightmare.
Reported by her own father to the Hisbah—a controversial Islamic police force long accused of human rights abuses—Ruth was forced into hiding. Her uncle was arbitrarily detained on baseless accusations of influencing her. Even when the police commissioner of Kano State, after investigation, found no case and told the family to continue with their lives, the shadow of intimidation remained.
Ruth and Silas moved forward with courage, planning their wedding. On the very day of their union, immediately after being joined as husband and wife in church, the Hisbah task force appeared. In a scene of shocking brutality, they seized the newlywed bride from her celebration. The justification? A fraudulent claim by her father that Ruth was 14 years old, not 22—a desperate attempt to nullify her legal agency.
The evidence, including outreach from groups like Soldiers of Christ Global Media, confirms Ruth’s true age. In Nigeria, an 18-year-old adult has the absolute right to choose their religion. This is not a theological debate; it is a matter of law and basic human dignity.
Yet, in Kano State, where Sharia law runs parallel to the secular legal system, this constitutional guarantee is under violent siege. The Hisbah operates with impunity, molesting, intimidating, and violating citizens rights with no regard for national law or international human rights standards. Their ultimatum to Ruth—return to Islam or be killed—is not merely a family dispute; it is an act of religious terrorism sanctioned by a state apparatus.
This is a cry for Ruth, but it is also a cry for Nigeria.
Urgent Call To Action:
- To the International Community & Human Rights Organizations: Witness Ruth’s plight. The world must not look away as a young woman is kidnapped for her faith in Jesus Christ. Apply pressure for her immediate and unconditional release, and for her safety with her husband.
- To the Federal Government of Nigeria: Uphold your constitution. The abduction of an adult citizen from a legally recognized marriage is a criminal act. Federal authorities must intervene in Kano State to assert the supremacy of the Nigerian Constitution over contradictory local practices.
- To Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State: Your leadership is being tested. You have a direct responsibility to curb the excesses of the Hisbah, ensure the rule of law prevails, and secure Ruth’s immediate release. History will judge your action or inaction.To the Hisbah Leadership: Your mandate is to promote virtue, not to commit vice. Abduction, death threats, and falsifying ages are profound vices. Respect the law you claim to uphold. As Christians convert to Islam in Nigeria without molestation, so must Muslims have the equal right to leave.
- To the Hisbah Leadership: Your mandate is to promote virtue, not to commit vice. Abduction, death threats, and falsifying ages are profound vices. Respect the law you claim to uphold. As Christians convert to Islam in Nigeria without molestation, so must Muslims have the equal right to leave.
Ruth’s wedding dress has been replaced by the chains of coercion. Her hymns of joy have been silenced by threats of murder. Her story is a terrifying parable for millions of Nigerians who live in the shadow of such fanaticism.
We stand with Ruth and Silas. We stand with the right of every person, everywhere, to believe, to change their belief, and to live in peace. We call on the world to stand with them, too, before the unthinkable happens. The time to act is now.
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