In Ekiti, the fear of rapists has become the beginning of wisdom. Mothers are no longer comfortable leaving their female children in the custody of their male friends or relatives, writes Correspondent RASAQ IBRAHIM
For Ekiti girl-children, things are no longer at ease because they are victims of sexual violence. Literally, they are facing hell. This is because Ekiti State is currently experiencing high incidence of rape and child defilement which were against its people’s core values. Though, the menace of sexual violence in the state nowadays is as bad as elsewhere in the country.
According to the wife of Ekiti State Governor, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, sexual abuse and domestic violence have become wanton social disorders.
“Violence against women and children is a major problem that we are facing now in Ekiti State. We are vigorously working on the issue of wife battering, because our legislation in that regard is not adequate.
“But the issue that saddened us most is the issue of rape and child defilement. It is becoming an embarrassment to the state. It challenges our values and the worse part of it is that it seems as if we are all used to it.
It is a fact that we have all come to a stage in Ekiti State where we are not shocked that an old man is having canal knowledge of a two-year-old,” she said.
With this development, could it be the end time is near or societies have lost their core values? The incidence occurs at home, in school, in the workplace, in church and the mosque. It is perpetrated by the rich and poor, teachers and guardians, religious leaders, common man, educated and illiterates, family members and neighbours.
The religious leaders who are regarded and meant to be destiny moulders are not left out of the disorder. Now, they have become destiny destroyers with their heinous attitudinal dispositions.
Hence, mothers of girl-children live in trepidation. They have their hearts in their mouths amidst daily reports of defilement and rape within or near Ekiti State. Now, one thinks twice before one decides where to go without their wards, especially the female ones as distrust has become widespread.
If many mothers and their female children are living in fear, they are justified for the scale of terror that has been unleashed on them is evident in recent times.
In one of the cases, a father, Basiru Adeyanju on July 9, last year, in Irona area of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, allegedly defiled his 17-year-old daughter for money making rituals.
The victim had been with her father since two years after her parents were separated. The medical examination conducted on the teenager revealed the girl’s outer vagina was bruised, but she was HIV negative.
Confessing to the crime, Adeyanju said he cleared the private part of her daughter based on the instruction of a native doctor with a white handkerchief for him to become rich.
In another repulsive case, on February 25, a 53-year-old man, Dennis Agya Kiyeye was arrested by the operative of the Nigeria Security and Defence Corps for impregnating her 15-year-old niece.
Kiyeye committed the offence in Ilupeju Village in Gbonyin Local Government Area of the State. Not only that, the alleged culprit attempted to murder the girl.
But for the help of good-spirited Nigerian who reported the act to the head of the village, the girl who had been put in his care since 2003 after the demise of her mother would have died.
Similarly, Proprietor of God’s Grace Nursery and Primary School, located at Fayemi Market, Agric Olope Area, Ajilosun in the state capital, Mr. Babatunde Ibitoye raped a 10-year-old pupil of his school.
He was caught in a bush near Fayemi Market, where he was said to have sexually abused the victim under the guise that he was taking her home after school hours. Ibitoye was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after finding him guilty of rape.
Also, on April 1, last year in Ire-Ekiti, a 60-year-old Samuel Orji was remanded in prison for raping a 12-year-old minor. The perpetrator lured the girl into his room by telling her to buy something for him.
Furthermore, a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped by three able-bodied men; Samuel Farotimi, 27, Sunday Ajimoko, 40 and Sunday Ilugbo, 30, in Odo-Ado Area of Ado-Ekiti, while she was coming back from an errand.
Also, a man identified as Lucky Ayosin was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping his own daughter serially that later gave birth to a baby for him. The convict’s 20-year-old son, Ilesanmi Ayosin, caught his father having sex with his 16-year-old daughter three times.
Ilesanmi was shot by the father with a single-barrel gun in a bid to cover up his crime but the boy escaped and reported the incident to his mother, Yemisi Bayode, who had divorced from their father 14 years ago; leaving the two children in his custody.
Also, a 65-year-old man, Bayo Akinwete gave his five-year-old daughter alcoholic drink to intoxicate her and later raped her until she became unconscious. The victim and her 9-year-old sister were living with their father because their mother had left them with him.
But unfortunately, the stench from this horrific violation is being prolonged by the absence of immediate dispensation of justice. And victims often accused the police of treating report of incest with kid’s glove.
The rising wave of rape, defilement and other forms of sexual violence which heightened fears in Ekiti State prompted the government to take frontal and multi-dimensional measures to tackle the menace.
Against all odds, Governor Fayemi re-enacted Ekiti State Gender-based Violence (Prohibition) Law 2019 which recommended stiffer penalties.
These efforts were solely put in place to make Ekiti atmosphere hot for sex offenders. If not for the stringent laws and Mrs. Fayemi campaigns, the social decadence would have gotten out of hand.
Part of the measures in the re-enacted law include publishing the names and photographs of convicted sex offenders in prominent public spaces in their communities and their local government headquarters and conducting compulsory psychiatric test on offenders.
Others include issuing an advisory to the traditional rulers of the offenders’ communities on the status of the offender and displaying photographs of offenders on Ekiti State Broadcasting Service and announcing their names on radio and television.
The government walked the talk, last year, when it published photograph of convicted sex offender, Reverend Gabriel Asateru, in prominent public spaces.
Asateru, 53, who is currently serving a five-year imprisonment at the Federal Prison, Ado-Ekiti defiled a seven-year-old girl on December 23, 2016 at Ifisin Ekiti in Ido/Osi Local Government Area.
A statement issued and signed by Fapohunda said: “This publication is in furtherance of the Fayemi administration’s zero-tolerance policy for all forms of violence against women and children.
“One of these measures includes public notification of the status of convicted sex offenders by showing their photographs on Ekiti State Broadcasting Service and announcing their names on Radio Stations in the state.
“The Ministry of Justice today began the publication of the names and photographs of convicted sex offenders in the state.
“We are commencing with a Public Notice on the status of Reverend Asateru Gabriel, a former Anglican Priest who was convicted for defiling a seven-year-old girl,” he added.
Read Also: No hiding place for rapists in Lagos, says OPD
Meanwhile, the actions of the Ekiti State government has been generating varying degrees of argument from opinion moulders.
Retired Permanent Secretary, Mr. Idowu Oguntuase told The Nation that the decision was apt and a desperate measure to combat a desperate situation.
He said: “The rape of a minor is a trauma. No child could completely recover from rape incident and there’s the likelihood that the perpetrator could change environment and commit more of such atrocity.
“The unorthodox but bold decision to publish the names of such offenders is a masterstroke. One, it puts the perpetrators out of business and, two, the potential stigma deters other pedophiles.”
For a public affairs Analyst, Mr. Salam Rasaq, the action is a step is a good one, saying that it will serve as deterrence to prospective offenders.
“That rape has become a wanton social disorder in our society cannot be subjected to argument. Therefore, there is need for concerted efforts by government at all levels towards curbing this social menace.
“Those named and shamed will convey a great message to members of the public that the rights of women and girl-child are very essential.
“Truly, this is another measure towards enhancing gender balance in a society with age-long gender discrimination,” he said.
For Olubodun Ayobami, the measure taken by the government was necessary and needed to deter people from engaging in the heinous act.
“Sexual violence is a wicked act which should not go unpunished. I think convicting sex offenders only is not enough. But with this action, no one will want his name heard on radio and pictures published on newspaper because of such gruesome act.
“This will also help people of the state identify the offender so as to be careful not to leave their children with him even after the service years in prison,” she said.
But for Akinwale, the measure is good but not the best way to curb sexual violence.
He argued that the measure will increase suicide rate in the state, bearing in mind the staggering rate of crimes.
Akinwale said: “Prisons are rehabilitation centres, not life-destroying centres; offenders should not be totally condemned therein. They are meant to bring back offenders to the realisation of the general culture as against their own previous counter-culture.
“But this measure by the state government will go against this as prisoners whose names and pictures are already displayed before serving their jail terms will see no need to live again.
“Offenders today can be society reformers tomorrow. But if measures against their previous crimes have totally and forever destroyed their images, how will their lives be meaningful again after serving their jail terms? The measures must be revisited and reviewed.
“Moreover, it is the responsibility of every government to put some measures in place to deter people from committing crimes.
“Although people are born to commit crimes”, as stated by Jeremy Betham, “human beings adopt felicific calculus to calculate the cost and benefits of their actions and that to deter people from committing crimes, the punishment attached to every crime must be greater than its benefits.
“This claim often makes policymakers to ensure the punishment of any crime is greater than their offence so as to deter people from committing it. Ekiti State government danced to the tune of this measure against crimes.
“But I don’t think the measure of displaying photographs of sex offenders is the best way to curb sexual violence”, he said.
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