A 13-year-old Nigerian girl who was allegedly abducted and forced into marriage is to be re-united with her family today in the capital, Abuja, police say.

Ese was handed over to police yesterday but could not be reunited with her parents because they arrived in Abuja late in the evening.

The search for Ese began on Sunday after a paper published an article about her alleged abduction, prompting a social media campaign demanding that she be freed.

Her family says she was abducted from southern Bayelsa state in August by a man who forced her to convert to Islam before marrying her in the northern city of Kano.

The man denies abducting her or forcibly converting her.

There have been some 50,000 tweets using the hashtag #FreeEse since Sunday to put pressure on the authorities to find the girl.