‘Missing’ mum, child now living in Lae

 By ELLEN TIAMU

A WOMAN and child, who were last week reported to be missing, have turned up in Lae, Morobe.

A report in The National last Thursday said a Peter Seken from Minjip village outside Mt Hagen was searching for his wife Kudsida and daughter Jemalin.

He said they were last seen on May 18 and feared they might have been abducted.

Kudsida, however, visited the Lae office of The National on Saturday and denied Seken’s story.

Kudsida said she was Seken’s fifth wife and had left him following consent and approval from community leaders of his Minjip village.

She said the leaders had agreed on her leaving because Seken had not paid her bride price and not cared for them.

“After the community leaders made the decision that the two children and I should leave him because of neglect, I returned to my village in Anglimp, Jiwaka, for a year hoping that he would call or send us some money but he didn’t,” she said.

“I then called him last month and we agreed to go by what the elders had said and separate,” Kudsida said.

She added that the leaders also agreed that Seken would have custody of their year-old son and she would keep three-year-old Jemalin.

Kudsida said they met in Mt Hagen last month and she left the baby with him as agreed.

“I left school in Grade 10 in 2008 to marry him but life has not been good and we have consented to a separation,” she said.

“Jemalin and I are now living in Morobe.”