Gombe Varsity Alerts Families on The Implication of Parental Child Kidnapping

The North Eastern University in Gombe State has issued a stern warning to families about the severe implications of Parental Child Abduction Laws, emphasizing that these laws could potentially lead to a parent being seperated from the child for up to 20 years, depending on the circumstances.

The university diclosed this during its inaugural Faculty of Law Seminar Series. The seminar, aptly titled “Parental Child Abduction, from the Lenses of Nigerian Laws,” was attended by the authorities of the Gombe State Judiciary.

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The university selected this topic due to its profound impact on child development and its ripple effect on the nation’s overall progress. In a paper presented by three lecturers from the Faculty of Law, it highlighted that child abduction within a family occurs when a parent takes a child without legal permission. This act not only attracts a penalty but also has far-reaching consequences on the child’s education, wellbeing, and future.

Associate Professor Umar Alkali, the Lead Presenter and Dean of the Faculty of Law, shed light on the prevalence of this issue across the country. He said, “It is quite prevalent in all parts of the country, with such cases occurring during marriage dissolution, and the child stayed with either of the two.”

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Professor Alkali further explained, “Whoever gets the legal custody is the lawful person to be in custody of that child. Whoever did not get that custody and takes the child by force without following the due process of the law has abducted his child. He is your child. You have the right to provide for his education, but you don’t have the right to take him by force after separation if the court or separation agreement did not give you custody of the child.”

Professor Alkali emphasized, “If you have not been given lawful custody of the child by the court, you don’t have the right, even if it is your child. This is our message, and parents need to understand it. It is not all the time that the father goes into this. Sometimes even the mother partakes in that.”

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According to the Child Rights Act Section 27, the offence could attract a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. However, Professor Alkali called for the Parental Abduction Laws to specify the punishment to prevent other children in the family from becoming vulnerable if a parent is incarcerated.

“We will not be happy seeing parents punished for their children because as explained in the paper, sometimes it makes other children in the family vulnerable. It’s one child that is a subject of dispute, but maybe there could be four or five other children in the family. If, as a result of that a breadwinner is punished, the other children become vulnerable,” said Prof. Alkali.

He suggested alternative punishments for violators of parental child abduction, such as non-custodial punishment, to protect other children from becoming vulnerable.