SUSPECTED cultists have caused chaos in Diobu waterfront communities, Port Harcourt Rivers State, shooting and damaging properties including vehicles.
It was gathered that the activities of the hoodlums created panic among residents, forcing most of them to hide in their houses.
Sources said the waterfront communities of Obidianso, Nwachukwu, Anozie, Echue, Ukwato, Timber and Okwelle, were thrown into confusion by the rampaging youths.
The Diobu Vigilance group reportedly apprehended one of the suspects, identified simply as Brown, and recovered an AK47 rifle, which was handed over to the police.
Chairman of Diobu Vigilance group, Amatari Bipelede, who confirmed the incident, said his group arrested one of the suspects and handed him over to the police.
The Uyo zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arrested three suspected land scammers in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
The commission’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale named the suspects as Ubah Victor Gozie, Sunday Justice and Okon Mark Uduak.
Oyewale said the suspects were arrested at their office located at Oron Road, opposite the the state Water Board.
He said the arrest was based on intelligence report gathered by operatives of the Commission on the modus operandi of the suspects, adding that they defrauded innocent indigenes of the state under the guise of providing them with real estate services, using the name, Royal Dream Estate.
“Investigations into the activities of the trio revealed that they have defrauded several persons within the state of up to N9 million.
The police cybercrime unit, with the Interpol, National Central Bureau, Abuja has arrested two suspects for alleged complicity in a €14.7 million (or N6.7 billion) scam in the procurement of COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Force spokesman DCP Frank Mba on Sunday identified the suspects as Babatunde Adesanya a.k.a Teddy, 50, a Master degree holder in Cell Biology, and Akinpelu Hassan Abass, 41, M.D. Musterpoint Investment Nig. Ltd, who, he alleged, are members of a sophisticated transnational criminal network.
Mba said in a statement that they cloned the corporate website of ILBN Holdings BV, Holland to transact with and defraud one Freiherr Fredrick Von Hahn, a representative of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
“The arrest of the suspects was sequel to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) received by the Bureau from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice conveying a request from the German Government for investigations into a fraudulent transaction on the procurement of COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment linked to a Nigerian-based bank account.
“Discrete investigations by INTERPOL Nigeria revealed that the suspects and their Holland-based cohorts, one Eduardus Boomstra and Geradius Maulder specialised in identity theft, cyber-stalking, cloning of corporate websites, amongst other cyber mischiefs, to defraud unsuspecting members of the public across the world. In this instance, the suspects fraudulently obtained from Mr Freiherr Fredrick Von Hahn the sum of 1.5m Euro and another 880,000 Euro as advance payment for the supply of COVID-19 PPEs valued at 14.7million Euros.
“Disturbed by the non-arrival of the PPEs, Mr Freiherr Fredrick Von Hahn eventually visited the corporate office of ILBN Holdings BV in Holland to inquire reasons for the delay in supplying the items only to find out that the company never did business with him and that the transaction was a scam. The fraudsters merely cloned the company’s website and falsely presented themselves as representatives of the company before subsequently executing the fraudulent transaction.”
The suspects will be arraigned in court soon, the statement said.
A School teacher has been arraigned in a Kwara State family court in Ilorin, the state capital, for alleged sexual molestation of his seven-year-old pupil.
Akorede Hammed was said to have taken the minor to a toilet where he allegedly undressed her and fondled her private part, according to Police First Information Report.
The information was contained in the girl’s father’s letter to Area Command Metro, Ilorin.
In the letter, the girl said Hammed took her to a toilet and locked her up to conceal the crime from passersby.
GUNMEN have struck again in Southern Kaduna, killing three persons and abducting seven..
The assailants attacked two communities in Kajuru council area yesterday morning, Mr Awemi Dio Maisamari, National President of Adara Development Association, said in a statement.
Police spokesman Muhammad Jalige said he had no information on the attack, but Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said Governor Nasir El-Rufai had been told about it, as well as other attacks in the state.
Aruwan said the governor condemned the attacks, condoled with affected families, and urged security personnel to crush the bandits.
“Government condoles with the families that lost their loved ones to the sheer criminality of the bandits. Security agencies have been directed to double up and intensify operations against bandits…This criminality is an attack on our unity and collective well-being,” Aruwan said in a statement.
Maisamari listed the names of those killed in the two Adara communities, saying that attacks persist despite a peace accord with the Fulani community.
“Today, Sunday, 6th September, 2020 at 2.00am, the Adara community of Buda, in Buda Ward of Kajuru LGA came under another deadly attack from suspected Fulani militia,” Maisamari said, calling the attacks “premeditated and unprovoked”.
Two suspected members of a notorious child trafficking gang have told the police how they killed a mother of a three-month-old child, sold the baby and shared the proceeds before luck ran out on them shortly after.
The duo, Mary Ishmael (68) and her foot soldier, 23-year-old Chinedu Nwachukwu, were among the 15 suspects paraded by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Thursday as part of the achievements recorded by the police command in the last three weeks.
Mukan said that Nwachukwu was arrested by men of 48 PMF who were on stop-and-search duties at Omerelu Nipping Point near Owerri, Imo State while carrying a five-month-old baby he allegedly could not explain how he came about.
He was detained at Elele Divisional Police Station and later transferred with the child to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) where he allegedly confessed to have stolen the baby after killing the mother and pushing the body in a pit in an uncompleted building around Igwuruta, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.
The suspects were also allegedly linked to the disappearance of a single nursing mother in Nwachukwu’s neighbourhood, Chinonye Queen Uzoma and her three-month-old daughter, who were said to have been declared missing for several weeks before Nwachukwu’s arrest.
According to the police, Nwachukwu confessed during interrogation that he also killed Uzoma, disposed her body in a forest and sold her baby to Ishmael in the sum of N250,000, while the latter sold the baby to a Benin, Edo State resident in the sum of N350,000.
Corroborating the state police boss, Nwachukwu said: “This woman (pointing at his 68-year-old accomplice), was the one that sent me to snatch the babies. After killing the first woman, I sold her baby to this woman in the sum of N250,000 and she resold the baby to somebody in Benin in the sum of N350,000.
“But while the first woman I sold her baby died in the process and I threw her body into a forest at Igwuruta where we live, the woman whose baby I was also going to sell to Mama (Ishmael) before I was arrested survived despite pushing her into a pit.”
Narrating how he was able to successfully snatch the babies from their mothers, Nwachukwu said: “For the first woman, I hit her with a club in the back several times and she fell down and died. I then took the body and dumped it in a forest at Igwuruta.
“I have taken the police to where I threw her body. But before we got there, her flesh had decayed, leaving only the bone. This happened since June. It is now three months since I killed her.
“The second woman survived the attack. What happened was that I hit her once in the back of her head, quickly pushed her into a pit in an uncompleted building and ran away with her baby. It was while I was going to take the baby to Mama where she asked me to bring the baby that I was arrested by the police.
“When I was arrested, the police asked me the whereabouts of the mother of the baby and I told them that she has died, narrating how I killed her and pushed her into a pit.
“I thought that like the first woman, she would die in the pit. But when I took the police to the pit, she was still alive but very weak. The police brought her out and took her to the hospital, and she survived.”
On her own part, 68-year-old Ishmael said: “I am a nurse. I carry out child delivery for pregnant women. I work in a hospital and also operate a shop. I am very popular in my neighborhood.
“It was Chinedu (Nwachukwu) who approached me, saying that his girlfriend gave birth to a baby and ran away. He said he lacked the capacity to nurture the baby, so he wanted to give her to a couple that was looking for children for a fee.
“He said there is no cause for alarm, that the baby’s mother was aware of the decision to sell her.
“I was skeptical initially and did not want to get involved, but he persisted. It so happened that a family in Benin had some time ago approached me to look out for such babies for them; that they would be interested in raising such babies for themselves.
“I called the lady and told her of the available child. She came down here and I gave it to her in the sum of N350,000, out of which I gave Chinedu N250,000.”
Asked the role she played in the snatching of the second baby, she said she knew nothing about it. But Nwachukwu insisted that she was the mastermind and that he was on his way to where they had agreed to meet for the transaction when he was arrested.
Sexual abuse is on the rise. Unfortunately, not much is said about cases of little boys left to cry and dry their tears after being sodomized. Grace Obike reports on tales of hapless boys raped by older men.
Travails of male children raped by homosexual adults
Kano centre admits 573 sexually- abused boys in three years
About two years ago, Adamu(not real name), a seven-year-old indigene of Kano State, had to deal with the trauma of being repeatedly raped by a man who was in the habit on grabbing him on his way to school. Adamu became severely sick and had to be hospitalised when his mother found that maggots were coming out of his anus.
Three years old Mohammed(not real name) did not seem to understand why his mother was fussing over him, or why she was taking him to see the doctor at the Waraka Sexual Assault Referral Centre unit of the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital Kano, who might give him an injection. But his mother, Hindattu Adam, had just discovered that her brother-in-law had been abusing her innocent son. According to the poor boy, his uncle was making him to fondle his manhood. He would put his manhood in the little boy’s mouth to suck and push it into his anus whenever his mother was not around.
For four-year-old Ahmed(not real name), his parents felt that allowing him go to the mosque with his older brother at 4 pm for prayers was quite safe since the mosque was located around the corner from their house in the city of Kano. Unknown to them, a paedophile that has been trailing the young boy took the opportunity to perpetrate his act.
“He grabbed me as I was going to the mosque, pulled down my pants and put it (manhood) into my anus, then I saw mucus coming out.” Ahmed explained to a social worker at the Waraka Centre.
All Sadiq(not real name) wanted after his evening prayers at about 9 pm was a hot meal before crawling up to sleep in the place he shares with his fellow Almajiri’s. Unfortunately, fate was not ready to smile on the 14-year-old that night. As he waited for his teacher to return from where he had gone to after their prayers at the mosque, a man he knew as a friend of Alhaji Ibrahim, a man he sometimes goes to clean his house and fetch water for a token, walked up to him and asked if he was hungry, to which he said yes. Alahaji Ibrahim asked Sadiq to follow him to the house of his rich friend around the Murtala Muhammad hospital, who would give him food.
Sadiq grudgingly agreed. But he soon began to worry when the man’s friend caught up with them as they were going. And instead of going to the rich man’s house, they took him into a dark part of the hospital. The man proceeded to hold him down, removed his trousers and started touching his private parts and causing Sadiq to protest.
“I asked him, what is this, Mallam? You said that you were going to give me food, why are you touching me?” he recalled.
Sadiq, a native of Asiri in Jigawa State who had lived as an Almajiri in Kano for six years, explained that as the man was raping him, another man appeared with a bright torchlight, catching them in the act and taking them to the security men. The hapless young boy, whose face was badly bruised and swollen from severe beating at the time of he was being interviewed by The Nation correspondent, said the man must have targeted him because he must have heard about what his friend, Alhaji Ibrahim, was doing to him. Alhaji Ibrahim had formed the habit of taking him into his room each time he went to the compound to fetch water and clean his house, removing his trousers and raping him.
Sadiq said: “Each time I tried to protest, he would threaten that if I shouted, he would report me to the police. I am afraid of the police so I keep quiet and he puts his manhood in my anus.”
But on this occasion that they were caught in the hospital, they were taken to the police station. And just like he had always feared, the police turned on him. They asked him to tell them the truth, which he did, but they did not believe him. They said he was lying; that he enjoyed what was being done to him.
Sadiq was beaten mercilessly until the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the station got wind of their actions and asked the policemen that were manhandling him to take him to the Waraka Centre because he was a minor and had been sodomized.
Three years ago, another victim, Salim(not real name), was sodomized repeatedly by his teacher, who was eventually caught and jailed. Unfortunately for the nine years old, his nightmare had just begun. He eventually fell ill and it was found that he had been infected with HIV.
His mother had died a couple of years before, leaving the poor boy behind with his father and stepmother. His illiterate parents, hearing of his afflictions, kicked the young boy out of the house. He was made to sleep outside with goats. He was also not allowed to share the family utensils. Hence he was served his pap in a shovel.
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Kano got wind of the poor boy’s condition, took him away from the home and, according to FIDA, he was being cared for by a good Samaritan and was doing well in his new home in Kano city centre.
In Sokoto State, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) announced that it apprehended 30 years old Lawalli Bala for sodomizing a 12-year-old boy whose parents had sheltered in their house.
Last year in Jos, Plateau State, a call was placed to the child helpline of the Cece Yara (save the children) Foundation. The caller reported that a three-year-old boy was being sodomized by a 15-year-old boy who was a distant relation of the young boy’s maternal grandmother.
The foundation said it investigated and realised that the 15 years old had not only been sodomizing the three years old but had also begun doing the same to the boy’s nine months old baby brother. The case was transferred to the child welfare unit of the Ministry of Women Affairs in Jos.
“May last year in Lagos, the centre received a report of a father, sodomizing his two sons who were both less than 10 along with his friend, the centre took up the case, investigated and realised that the report had some truth to it but had to be satisfied with just counselling the boys because the mother of the boys was not ready to testify against her husband so the case was transferred to the adequate authority.”
A similar case was reported in Benin City last year. The centre’s attention was drawn to the incident of a 30-year-old man who sodomized a 10-years-old boy. As Cece Yara began investigation, it realised that the man had done same to four other boys in Benin, and when the police tried arresting him, he absconded.
Suppressed menace
With the advent of the social media and several rights organizations giving people the voice to speak up, the society is constantly being flooded with news of rape and sexual offences. Unfortunately, not much is being said about sodomy. Most men raped by their fellow men or women tend to keep the secret more to themselves than speak up, says the Director General NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, in an interview with our correspondent.
“I would tell you that cases of sodomy are very many but people don’t report. We cannot shy away from the fact that it happens every day. It is probably even higher than that of girls now. But people don’t report, and that is the predicament and one of the challenges that we have.”
She added that so far, NAPTIP in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had only handled two cases of sodomy and both of them were still in court. Unfortunately, most of the non-governmental organisations in the FCT could not provide better information on such cases in Abuja. But The Nation investigation revealed that Abuja is not left out in the hideous act.
A visit to Life Camp, the seat of the government of the FCT Minster reveals horrifying cases of boys whose innocence have been defiled by men that should know better.
Behind Efab Estate, close to the Kado Fish Market in Life Camp, are arrays of shanties spread around different locations. As one drives towards the estate, one is confronted with the sight of a set of shanties with a carpenter shop beside it.
A carpenter who gave his name as Gayah said: “Four boys, all below age 12, recently reported that they were raped by one man who always comes in the afternoon to hang around the area when most people must have gone to work. We believe that he might have done it to more boys in the area, but these are the ones we know of.
“We reported the case to the police, but the perpetrator absconded and they have not seen him since then.”
Another man who claims to be a big player in the music and movie industries in Abuja, is suspected to be engaging young boys in the horrible act. Confronted by our correspondent, he denied the allegations, insisting that he is a musician with a music video on YouTube. Asked to prove his claim, he brought up a Hausa/English Christian gospel music by another artist titled “Yesu na gode” in which he can be seen jumping around in the background.
“I don’t do anything with children or anyone else. I only spread love around because I like to see people happy. But if you see anyone looking for people to act in a porn film between men, I will be interested, because I am an actor,” he said.
paedophile victims
Statistics on sexual abuse of male children
According to UNICEF Nigeria, 10 per cent of boys in Nigeria have been victims of sexual violence. And of the children who reported violence, fewer than five out of a 100 received any form of support.
In Kano, the Waraka Centre reports that 573 sexually abused boys were brought to their centre from January 2017 to March 2020. The office of the Attorney General/Commissioner for Justice in the state reports handling 95 cases in 2018, 94 in 2019 and 20 in the first few months of 2020.
The Nana Khadija Sexual Assault Referrals Centre (SARCs) in Sokoto reported that since the centre started in March 2020, it has provided medical care and psychosocial support to 29 male victims of sexual abuse. NSCDC reported that it handled 18 cases of sodomy while NAPTIP reports 25, all in Sokoto.
Enugu State Tamar SARCs said it has so far handled eight cases. The Mirabel Centre on its part reports 102 cases of male sexual abuse between January 2017 and July 2020 in Lagos State.
Cece Yara foundation said it had received quite a number of cases. Data analyst and centre manager, Abuja, Oludayo Ogunbiyi, in a chat with The Nation, revealed that although it did not have a comprehensive data on the subject, it had recorded 21 cases from Lagos, Ogun, Plateau, Benin and Abuja.
Wanda Adu, the Director of Wanda Adu Foundation, explained that a lot of sodomy is going on in the country, but most times, such cases are covered up. She said her foundation had handled a case of a father in Benue State who defiled three of his sons. But when it was reported to the police, they said it was a family issue since he was the father. All they did was to caution and warn him that he should not repeat it.
She said that speaking from experience as someone that works with men who have sex with men, cases of sodomy is common in every part of the country, with high number in Cross River, Benue and other states.
“In June this year, my foundation received a case of a teenage boy in Abuja who reported being defiled by a priest, but his parents decided not to talk about it for fear of offending God even though the boy wants justice,” she said.
Chairperson Kano State FIDA, Huwaila Ibrahim, explained that FIDA has handled quite a number of cases. “The number of cases we had last year scared me. It was more than 50 and all little boys,” she said.
She said one of the cases that stuck with her was the case of an almajiri her office handled about three years ago. It is that of a Mallam with a school on the outskirts of Hadeja Road, who picks seven boys at random from his pupils, who can be as young as five or four, to be his wives. She said the seven boys would be his wives for three to four months and then he would recycle them. “We don’t know how long it had been going on, but he had run the school for a long time and he also had two female wives and children,” Ibrahim said.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) Kano State Hisbah Board, Lawal Ibrahim, said that last year, about 14 cases were reported to their office.
He added: “We noticed that there are some areas that have become notorious for molesting underage children. Most of them are street children. They pretend to give them shelter but take advantage of them at night in areas like Gata, Gadan Kaya, Rigiyan Lemu, etc.”
On his part, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Kano State Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Kiyawa, insists that “cases of sodomy are not as rampant as those of rape in Kano State. When you take statistics of them and compare them to sodomy, which we call unnatural offence, you will realise that we record more rape cases than unnatural offences.”
How society reacts
Stakeholders like Huwaila Ibrahim and Wanda Abu agree that perpetrators of sodomy feed off on the culture of silence that the society adopts when it comes to issues of rape, especially sodomy. Most families worry about the stigma that accompanies the revelation that their sons are sodomized so they try not to pursue the case, hence the perpetrators often walk free.
Islamic cleric, Ibrahim Kura explains: “Because the society stigmatises people involved in this, even if it is the victim, most people or families prefer to forget about it rather than report. Another problem people see is that it is just litigation and maybe jail term for the perpetrators and no compensation. If there was a level of compensation, people might be more willing to come forward.”
For instance, Hindattu Adam, after realising what her brother-in-law did to her three-year-old, refused to confront him, tell anyone about the incident or report to the police. Whenand all little boys,” she said.
She said one of the cases that stuck with her was the case of an almajiri her office handled about three years ago. It is that of a Mallam with a school on the outskirts of Hadeja Road, who picks seven boys at random from his pupils, who can be as young as five or four, to be his wives. She said the seven boys would be his wives for three to four months and then he would recycle them. “We don’t know how long it had been going on, but he had run the school for a long time and he also had two female wives and children,” Ibrahim said.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) Kano State Hisbah Board, Lawal Ibrahim, said that last year, about 14 cases were reported to their office.
He added: “We noticed that there are some areas that have become notorious for molesting underage children. Most of them are street children. They pretend to give them shelter but take advantage of them at night in areas like Gata, Gadan Kaya, Rigiyan Lemu, etc.”
On his part, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Kano State Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Kiyawa, insists that “cases of sodomy are not as rampant as those of rape in Kano State. When you take statistics of them and compare them to sodomy, which we call unnatural offence, you will realise that we record more rape cases than unnatural offences.”
paedophile fighter
How society reacts
Stakeholders like Huwaila Ibrahim and Wanda Abu agree that perpetrators of sodomy feed off on the culture of silence that the society adopts when it comes to issues of rape, especially sodomy. Most families worry about the stigma that accompanies the revelation that their sons are sodomized so they try not to pursue the case, hence the perpetrators often walk free.
Islamic cleric, Ibrahim Kura explains: “Because the society stigmatises people involved in this, even if it is the victim, most people or families prefer to forget about it rather than report. Another problem people see is that it is just litigation and maybe jail term for the perpetrators and no compensation. If there was a level of compensation, people might be more willing to come forward.”
For instance, Hindattu Adam, after realising what her brother-in-law did to her three-year-old, refused to confront him, tell anyone about the incident or report to the police. When confronted with the fact when she spoke to our reporter, she said that she would only take it up if the doctors told her that her son was sick or infected with something. Other than that, she would make her children avoid the in-law and leave him to God.
Counselling psychologist with the Cece Yara Foundation, Sarima Worgu, explains that the effects of sodomy on a boy can be physical and psychological.
She said: “Apart from the physical, the psychological effects range from hyper arousal to experiencing avoidance behaviour, depression, poor school performances, anxiety and sexual behavioural problems.
“There are so many effects that this could have on children, but these are the long term impact on the kids, including substance abuse, especially for children who did not get help and support from their loved ones. The older they grow, the more they begin to engage in unhealthy lifestyles, risky behaviours and some of them even consider suicide.”
In some other cases, the society tries to deal with perpetrators on their own rather than hand them over to the police, says Ibrahim of Hisbah. He added that they always send their men out to patrol trouble spots because they realised that most communities would rather kill the perpetrators when they find them than hand them over to the authorities.
At the Waraka Centre, Fauziyya Ishaq from Gaida in Kano, who brought her 13 years old brother Mohammed Ishaq to be checked by a doctor after he escaped being raped by one Mallam Ali, told the story of how the perpetrator was almost lynched by an angry mob of men with sticks and stones, and women who came out to beat him with pestles.
Mallam Ali, whom she said hails from Kaduna State, had invited Mohammed to his shop to assist him in cleaning. But when the young boy walked in, he shut the door, overpowered the boy, pulled down his trousers, laid him down and tried to rape him. But the boy pushed him away, and while running out of the shop, he was injured by a nail he stepped on and had to be stitched up at the hospital.
The young boy reported the incident to his friend who naively thought he could confront Mallam Ali on his own but narrowly escaped the same fate. So he went back home and reported to his elder brothers, who in turn gathered the community members and attacked their brother’s attacker. Mallam Ali was fortunately rescued by a local vigilante and taken to the police.
She added: “When he realised that he was safe with the police, he arrogantly told us that we were making a fuss over children that he was yet to defile. He bragged that if we counted our fingers and toes, they would not add up to the number of young boys he had defiled in Kano and there was nothing we could do because he had friends in high places.”
An accused gay rapist, 28 years old Sadiq Mohammed, who spoke to The Nation while being paraded at the Police Command in Bumpai explained that he started having sex with men in primary school.
He added: “I did not mean to defile 17 years old Salim(not real name). I just did it because I enjoyed it. But he is the only child that I have ever touched. I only did it because my lover was not around.”
What the law says
The Senate on July 14, 2020 passed a bill removing the statute of limitation on rape and including boys in the definition of rape. It amended Section 357 of the principal Act, specifically substituting the words “woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent”, with the words, “any person, without consent, or with consent.”
The bill was sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu and titled, ‘A bill for an Act to amend the Criminal Code Act CAP. C.38, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004’. But this new bill is yet to be implemented in the states.
Huwaila Ibrahim said: “Kano State lawmakers are presently trying to amend some laws concerning rape. Unfortunately, right now, sodomy, according to the law, is still under unnatural offences and not rape.”
She added: “Why the case of sodomy breaks my heart is because the offence in Kano State comes with a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment and N50,000 fine.”
The FIDA chair said: “There is no case I know where one is given more than five years, and all the perpetrators I know are perpetual offenders. There is a person that I am hoping will be nailed again and we will make sure he is returned to the particular judge that convicted him twice so that he can be convicted for life.”
But the Director Public Prosecutions Ministry of Justice, Kano state, Sanusi Adomaji says it sometimes goes beyond that. Adomaji, who said that the ministry in the last eight months has got about 18 convictions for sodomy, added: “The duration of the convictions ranges from seven to maybe 10 years, and the court could direct the accused to compensate the victim in monetary forms apart from jail term, which could be N100,000 to N200,000 maximum, for the pains and trauma caused such a victim.”
Way out
In Kano the police, FIDA and the Waraka Centre said they were trying to sensitise Kano residents on the need to protect their wards and report rape as soon as it occurs. Huwaila and her colleagues, at a town hall meeting in Kumbotso Local Government Area, informed residents that the area was becoming notorious for paedophilia and, unfortunately, the parents of most of the victims refuse the report while some who do wait for days and contaminate evidence before reporting.
So far, twenty-two SARCs centres supported by the European Union, British Council and other organizations are spread across the country with some states like Lagos and Kaduna having three centres each, some like Kano have just one while some states are yet to set up theirs.
One of the coordinators of the Waraka SARCs, Abba Ahmed, explained that the centre supports and assists survivors of rape and other sexual assaults. He added that they are proposing to have more centres in the state because of the people in remote communities instead of just having only one in the whole of Kano State.
Abu said that if the country wants to contain cases of sodomy, more campaigns and sensitization should be carried out by the government, civil society, media and religious leaders.
“If you know that same sex exists then you should know that sodomy would. So there should be laid down laws with strict penalties,” she said.
This report was supported by the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR)“
Frightening tales of married men at mercy of violent spouses
Why men may begin to shun conventional marriage
Olatunji OLOLADE, Associate Editor
SEVERAL years later, as he took his wedding vows, Bidemi Oso remembered the twilight of 1988, when his mother ordered his father to kneel, raise his hands and close his eyes. His father, a manager at a dairy producer in Ogba, Lagos, fearfully complied in apparent dread of the whip in his mother’s hand.
Oso, rushed out to call other kids in the compound, screaming: “E wa woo, mummy mi tun ti ni ki daddy mi kawo soke (Come and see! My mother is punishing my father again!)” Pronto, about five kids scurried to the Osos’ ground floor apartment window. They peeped through dusty louvre blades for glimpses of the family’s breadwinner and presumed head, Mr. Oso, sweating in an extreme pose. Oso’s mom, standing arms akimbo, loomed over his father menacingly, using a koboko (horsewhip) on him each time his arms bent at the elbow or he lowered a hand to scratch his nose.
Eventually she noticed the children at the window and marched angrily towards them, causing them to flee.
At their Olukosi Street, Agege, Lagos residence, the Oso’s debacle was compound legend. Within the blocks of three houses, neighbours stared pitifully at Oso’s father, and cracked unsparing jokes about him in his absence. Housewives, couples and unmarried residents agreed that his marriage was his bondage. But none was courageous enough to free him; not even when he emerged elegantly decked in his suit, with black eyes and bruises sustained from his wife’s beatings.
“Everybody knew my mother beat up my father at will. They knew she punished him like a child. It was uncalled for. Regrettably, I participated in the jokes. But I was only a child. Now, I know better,” he said.
Few days to his marriage, Oso developed jitters. It dawned on him that he “might be signing up for a lifetime of hell” like his father. Thus he became scared.
“I didn’t wish to end up like my father. I can’t let any woman do to me, what my mother did to my father,” he said.
abusive wife
Thus as he took his vows, the 39-year-old resolved never to get caught off his guards. Beyond love and the promise of “sweet intercourse,” he dreaded marriage and its gendered power-play. “Attack is the best form of defence,” he stressed.
Thus right from his wedding night, he moved to assert his dominance over his new bride. He changed the hotel previously booked for their honeymoon, “because it was booked by his mother-in-law.” He said, “I needed to defy her (mother-in-law) and assert control over my marriage. She was fond of bossing her husband and other sons-in-law around. But I resolved never to be her stooge.” Of course, Oso’s bride, Bamidele, was livid but he stuck to his guns. The event almost ruined their wedding night. Then two weeks into their marriage, Oso gifted his wife with a “kafa” (a swivel kick clearing her off her feet), and plucked two of her front teeth with his fists, because she “slapped” him “thrice” during an argument on perceived infidelity.
Seven months into the wedding, their marriage officially hit the rocks. Oso said, “She is very violent. She had a knack for slapping me during arguments. She is exceedingly violent in bed too; she loves to strangle me during intercourse. She is a poor cook. She is very dirty and hates corrections. She is also an unrepentant cheat, who frequently flirts and exchanges nude pictures with her ex-boyfriend, and her mother and sisters meddled in our marriage. I had to assert myself lest they did to me what my mother did to my father,” he said.
It didn’t end well for Oso’s father. “He died in penury. My mother brutalised him physically and psychologically. She had an eerie hold over him. He was her slave…I don’t know what is happening to marriage these days. Once I saw my mother-in-law hit her husband, my wife’s stepfather, with the wooden sole of her slipper because he rebuked her for meddling in her daughters’ marriages. He retreated into his room to cry. It’s saddening,” said Oso.
But the 39-year-old is grossly misguided, argued Bamidele, his estranged wife. She said, “I don’t know what screwed up his childhood but he must have seen too much of bad movies from Nollywood.” Bamidele, 31, denied her husband’s accusations, claiming that he has anger issues. She said, “He is timid during intercourse and rather than seek help, he covers up his lack of stamina with rage. He lacks the finesse and maturity to keep a home. He hasn’t evolved. He is stuck in the past. He keeps venting and transferring aggression over stuff his father went through in his mother’s hands, on me. I am not his mother for crying out loud. I had to move out, lest he kills me or I kill him.”
The 31-year-old took a wise decision, according to Kemisola Idowu, a marriage counsellor and social psychologist. “It’s better she quits the relationship before it implodes, leading to the death of either partner,” she said.
While the Osos represent a fraction of problematic marriages across the country, its curious manifestations of intimate partner violence against men is resonant of a rising trend involving persistent acts of violence committed against Nigerian men by their wives. Sometimes, they are gruesomely murdered.
Wives with knives…
Few people would forget in a hurry, the stark narrative of the Sandas. In a judicial drama that lasted almost three years, Maryam Sanda was found guilty and sentenced to death for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, by Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
•FMC doctor allegedly stabbed by his wife undergoing treatment in Owerri.
Sanda stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife, with clear intent to kill, Justice Halilu said in the judgment on a two-count homicide charge brought by the Nigerian police against Sanda in November 2017.
Ibrahim Mohammed, a key witness and friend to the deceased, alleged that Sanda narrated how Sanda attempted to stab Bilyaminu with a knife, a perfume jar and a broken bottle of groundnut, in his presence. Bilyaminu allegedly sustained multiple cuts, wresting the weapons from Sanda’s grasp. Although Mohammed eventually left for home, he suffered a heart-wrenching reunion with his friend, at the hospital: at their next meeting, there was a hole near Bilyaminu’s chest, bite marks on his stomach and stitches all over his body.
Maryam, however, denied attacking her husband, claiming that he pushed her to the floor, following an argument over nude pictures found on his phone. She testified that a shisha pot broke her fall, and its shards pierced Bilyaminu when he slipped on water that spilt from the pot.
Regardless of her defence, Sanda was sentenced to death by hanging. But the deed had been done. Bilyaminu died a sad, gruesome death.
And Nigeria won’t forget in a hurry, lawyer Udeme Otike-Odibi, 48, who reportedly chopped off her husband’s manhood after stabbing him to death. Giving testimony on the incident before an Igbosere High Court in Lagos, Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP Olusegun Bamidele, of Homicide Section, State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Panti, told the court that Udeme, in her statement, confessed to killing her husband, 50-year-old Symphorosa Otike-Odibi, also a lawyer, and cutting off his manhood, after suspecting him of having an extra-marital affair.
The murder took place at the couple’s home in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria, on May 2, 2018, as Udeme, who is a dual British and Nigerian citizen, was preparing to fly to the United Kingdom. ASP Bamidele said: “She stated that the deceased was having extra-marital affairs and whenever she raised the issue with him, his responses were not satisfactory…She had a discussion with him and there was a hot exchange of words, which made her go to the kitchen and get a frying pan and a knife.
“When she returned to where the deceased lay, she hit him on the head with the frying pan and said, ‘Tell me, what is in your mind that you are withholding.’ She stated that the deceased called his mother to report her conduct but she continued to hit him on the head, again and again. Finally, she confirmed that she used the knife tostab the deceased in his abdomen. She also said while the deceased was lying on his back, she was still angry.
“She sat beside him, looking at his intestines coming out, and said: ‘If your penis is the one that is giving you licence to have the feeling of another person, it’s better we cut it off.’
“She proceeded to do so with the same knife she used in stabbing him and hung a piece of the penis in his right hand.”
Assistant superintendent Bamidele said Otike-Odibi later sent her friend a WhatsApp message which read: ‘” have done something terrible.”
Police later seized a frying pan, a blood drenched knife and Otike-Odibi’s Nigerian and British passports from her home.
While women are encouraged to feel “powerful enough” to confront or leave an abuser via marriage counselling and feminist orientation, abused men are simply counselled “to be a man.” The latter are oftentimes made to believe that they are the ones with flawed reasoning and character, hence they are frequently urged to seek professional help to fix their behaviour, argued Ibrahim Ahmad, a psychiatrist.
There is no gainsaying women are more on the receiving end of domestic violence, thus attracting global attention. To this end, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defined intimate partner violence as one of the most common forms of violence against women that includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and controlling behaviours by an intimate partner.
“The overwhelming global burden is borne by women. Although women can be violent in relationships with men, often in self-defence, and violence sometimes occurs in same-sex partnerships, the most common perpetrators of violence against women are male intimate partners or ex-partners. By contrast, men are far more likely to experience violent acts by strangers or acquaintances than by someone close to them,” argues the WHO in a recent report.
Likewise, the UN General Assembly, addressing the issue as Gender based Violence (GBV) declared it as any violent act that results in physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women in the context of wife battering, rape, commercial sexual exploitation, intimidation at work places, social exclusion, domestic abuse and violence, female genital mutilation or anything done by men to establish authority over women socially, intellectually or economically.
While WHO, the media, the UN, governments and women’s rights movements have fought, rightly, for more societal attention to domestic abuse and sexual violence against women, male victims of these crimes still tend to get short shrift, from the media and activists alike.
•Sentenced to death: Maryam Sanda being consoled by her lawyer.
Widely broadcast social experiments have shown that while people are quick to intervene when a man in a staged public quarrel becomes physically abusive to his girlfriend, reactions to a similar situation with the genders reversed mostly range from indifference to amusement or even sympathy for the woman. These attitudes stem from traditional gender norms which treat victimhood, especially at a woman’s hands, as unmanly.
For instance, Tope Coker, a teacher, revealed how her grandmother continually assaulted her grandfather without reproach. She said, “There was this day when we heard a frightening noise from their room. We all rushed inside to find our grandma sprawled on the bed, sobbing vigorously into the sheets. We saw grandpa, God forgive us, crouched in a corner beside the bed. He was sweating and visibly disoriented. He occasionally rubbed his temple and remained silent while we railed at him for daring to assault his wife even in their old age.
“I told him I was disappointed in him and we stopped calling him. Few months later, the house-help came to reveal to me and one of my cousins how grandma had been persistently beating grandpa till he cried. She said, grandma often starved him and denied him food, sometimes restricting his diet to cold cornmeal and bean cake. She even made a recording of her assault on him on two different occasions. I was dumbfounded and I felt terrible for tongue-lashing grandpa earlier.
“Grandpa said he felt too ashamed to reveal the other day that it was our grandma who pounced on him and beat him up. His attempt to escape through the door resulted in a scuffle and the noise that attracted us. He said she hit him with a plastic lamp on his head and that was why he was rubbing his temple.
“When we confronted grandma, she burst into tears recounting how she endured grandpa’s beating and philandering while they were a young couple. She wanted us to applaud her persistent abuse of her husband as payback. That was some sick excuse, and I couldn’t accept it even though some other family members accepted it,” she said.
Coker said the incident estranged her from her grandmother until her death in 2017, and drew her closer to her grandpa until his death one year earlier, 2016.
No romance without finance
Tunde Braimoh, 66, argued that it is about time men took deliberate measures to protect themselves. He said, “We must realise that as we grow older, our wives seek to be free. They do not want to answer to any man. They stop needing you once your children secure lucrative jobs and cater to their needs. I have friends who got married to a wife and they were left to rot by both wife and children. At their death, they were given lavish funerals. These were able providers who took care of their families. Their wives simply relocated abroad to live with the kids.
The retired haulage entrepreneur, who has three wives and eight children, argued that, “A man must marry more than one wife and work hard to cater for his family’s material and emotional needs. When you have more wives and children, they can’t all get mad and hate you at the same time. There will always be that wife and child who would take care of you, and to whom you would remain beloved, until your death.”
But 64-year-old widower, Peter Idoh, argued that you can only enjoy such luxury if you have the wisdom and stamina for it, and if you are rich in your old age.
He said, “Before I received my pension, women scorned me a lot; even women my age. Then I received my pension and I became the beau of most women, married women inclusive. A woman who refused my overture stating that she couldn’t answer to any man again suddenly volunteered to move in with me, promising to take care of my needs.”
•Udeme Otike-Odili (right) was accused of killing her husband, Symphorosa, at their home in Sangotedo, Lekki, Lagos.
Interestingly, men like Idoh encounter resistance from older women who want their own lives, not a full-time relationship. While many in this generation of heterosexual, divorced or widowed women want male companionship, they don’t necessarily relish the thought of moving in with a man.
For instance, 67-year-old retired business woman, Gladys Irueteh, stated that she is done putting up with the rigours of marriage and the live-in relationship. According to her, the burden of co-dependence, the daily tension within close quarters and the sacrifices made keeping a home, care-giving and doing the emotional legwork to keep her marriage humming petered off at the collapse of her second marriage.
Men shunning marriage…
Recently, a social media user generated outrage by teaching women via a post, on how to kill a cheating husband. The married woman, identified as Chidinma, received backlash from Nigerians for allegedly teaching other women how to kill their husbands “professionally without leaving any evidence behind.”
In a post on a Facebook group called “Extraordinary Mum’s and Singles Ladies B,” she reportedly wrote, “Please, please, my fellow ladies, if your husband cheats, do not stab him. Simply go and remove his car break. If he survives it, either the spinal cord will break, or his two legs. With that, he will only be facing you. Thanks.”
And just recently, a medical doctor simply identified as Mr. Jones reported in another social media post how a colleague at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), in Owerri, Imo State, was brutally attacked by his wife after a quarrel. He said the doctor’s wife allegedly cut off his nose, upper teeth, the tip of his tongue, lower gums, and after the assault, she called the husband’s mom to come and carry him.
“Luckily, for the doctor, he was rushed to the hospital and we stabilised him. He is conscious but cannot talk since he’s on tracheostomy. Now, I’m scared of this marriage thing,” said Jones.
At the backdrop of these proceedings, a creepy trend ensues amid suburban youth. Dare Thomas, 25, has “three children from three baby mamas.” He doesn’t intend to marry any of them. “I won’t tie myself down to any woman. They are users. I can never keep to one wife,” said the manager of a Dopemu, Agege based lotto and betting agency.
Like Thomas, Matthew Aina, a loan procurement manager with an Ikeja, Lagos-based bank, stated that, “Conventional marriage is outdated. It’s a scary transaction between two parasites. We use each other but the woman uses you more. Remember, ‘it’s always her matrimonial home,’ not yours. It’s easier to maintain civil partnerships with one or two baby mamas (birth mothers) of your children. I only have to worry about my children’s upkeep, and I can have as many women as I like. No problem with wives and in-laws,” said the 34-year-old.
Such reasoning is grossly flawed, argued Nafeesah Adekola, 56, a sociologist.
She said, “From a religious and sociological point of view, the marriage institution serves a pivotal role in sustaining society and enriching civilisation. Marriage should enhance an adult’s ability to parent. Both male and female must fulfill their gendered roles, and that can only be fulfilled in an appropriate family setting – irrespective of what modern theorists or so-called disrupters say.
“Married people are more likely to give and receive support to children and nourish growth within structured frameworks of family and society. When family members move outside of these roles, the family is thrown out of balance and this triggers a devastating impact on societal norms and civilisation. Society must recalibrate in order to function properly,” she said.
Thomas, Aina and their ilk are perhaps wary of having their manhoods severed or being stabbed to death by jealous wives. A peep into Bidemi Oso’s mind, however, reveals a wariness characteristic of a scared romantic.
The 39-year-old still hurts every time he remembers his father kneeling with his eyes closed and his hands raised in their dimly lit living room, while his mother hushed him quiet with promises of pain and a whiplash.
Mrs Oso was menacing: venomous threats leapt from her lips in measured cadence. The effect was frightening. It kept his father from attempting escape from the dark living room. Thirty-two years since his ordeal, Oso is still with his father in the dark room.
Police in Katsina State have arrested three teenage boys in Danmusa Local Government Area of the state for allegedly gang-raping and drowning a 13-year-old girl in a pond.
Police spokesman Gambo Isah said at a briefing yesterday in Katsina that the suspects were aged between 15 and 16.
Isah said the trio, all from Danmusa town, allegedly conspired, attacked and gang-raped the 13-year-old in their farmland on August 14, 2020.
He said that after raping the victim, they threw her into a nearby pond, where she drowned.
The spokesman added that the victim’s body was later discovered and taken to hospital, where she was confirmed dead.
Isah revealed that during investigation, the suspects confessed to have committed the offence.
Ahmed Aminu, was 23 years old when his father and stepmother decided to cage him in an unused garage like an animal. For seven years, lived in the small space and in solitary confinement.
Gone was his freedom. Freedom to eat, play and work as he might desire.
He had no idea of what went around him even though what served as his shelter was located right there in his father’s home, located at Farawa Baban Layi Mariri quarters, Kumbotso local government area – a suburb of Kano metropolis.
Most times Aminu would be forgotten, and without food and water for days.
Sometimes, he took his own urine to quench his thirst and his faeces as food.
Now 30 years old, Aminu was all skeleton when the police in Kano rescued him on Thursday.
His dad and stepmom had accused him of drug abuse. His father, Aminu Farawa, confessed that he locked his son for only three years. He was arrested.
With the help of a human rights group, Aminu was rescued on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Sources said a resident of the area, Rahma Muhammad, alerted a human rights activist who informed the police about Aminu’s plight.
A one minute video clip, which has gone viral online, shows Ms Rahma Muhammad saying “I have fulfilled my promise of rescuing him.”
In the video, Ms Mohammad is heard asking the victim whether he wants to be rescued or to return to his cage (room).
With only rags on him, Aminu had emaciated and lost his physical strength at the time he was rescued. A man in white garment and one policeman in uniform holding a rifle, held him onto a police van. The man in white sat next to him and they zoomed off, the video shows.
“Aminu was locked by his parents on the suspicion that he had started smoking and getting involved in drug abuse.
“His stepmother tried to hide him when the police arrived, insisting that he was not in the house. After a search, police eventually succeeded in rescuing him, an eyewitness Shehu Ibrahim, said.
The police spokesman, Abdullahi Haruna, confirmed the incident to newsmen.
Haruna said in a statement: “The Kano State Police Command wishes to inform members of the general public that on the 13/08/2020 at about 2315hrs, information received revealed that one Aminu Farawa of Farawa Quarters, Kumbotso LGA of Kano State locked up his biological son, one Ahmed Aminu, 30 years old, of the same address inside his car garage within his house for about seven (7) years without proper feeding and health care.
“A Team of Operation Puff-Adder was raised and immediately swung into action. The victim was rescued and rushed to Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital Kano and admitted.
“The father was arrested. Preliminary investigations revealed that the father confessed to have locked-up the victim for three (3) years on allegation of suspected Drug-Abuse.
“However, the Command’s Commissioner of Police, Habu Sani, ordered that the case be transferred to State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for Discreet Investigations.”
Haruna said the police are investigating and gathering information on the case, to unravel the reason for Aminu’s confinement.
The arrest Aminu’s father came only five days after another fatherin Birnin Kebbi was similarly apprehended for allegedly chaining and keeping his 11 year old son in an animal stall for two years.
Arrested along with the boy’s father were his three wives.
Jibril lost his own mother about two years ago.
Spokesman for the Kebbi State Police Command, Nafi’u Abubakar, said the arrests were effected on Sunday after the command received “information that an 11-year-old boy named Jubrin Aliyu had been chained at their home for almost two years.”
He added: “We mobilised our men and rushed to their residence where we confirmed the claim as being true. He was rescued and taken to a psychiatric hospital in Birnin Kebbi for medication.
“Since we were still checking out the condition of the boy, we had to effect arrests involving his own biological father and three of his stepmothers who were living in the same compound with him. Investigations are ongoing.
“The boy is responding to treatment. What we discovered so far is that he had a pre-existing health condition. He was subsequently taken to another hospital in Sokoto.
“Seeing that he tried his best, the father tried to subject him to such inhuman and degrading treatment. The boy is going through a mental health condition for which he’s being treated.”
“Since we were still checking out the condition of the boy, we had to effect arrests involving his own biological father and three of his stepmothers who were living in the same compound with him. Investigations are ongoing. The boy is responding to treatment. What we discovered so far is that he had a pre-existing health condition. He was subsequently taken to another hospital in Sokoto.
“Seeing that he tried his best, the father tried to subject him to such inhuman and degrading treatment. The boy is going through a mental health condition for which he’s being treated.”
News of Jibril’s ordeal was broken on Facebook by a user, Maryam Shetty, who said the boy lost his mother a few years back and was then subjected to inhuman treatment by the father and his wives.
The boy was left to eat from remnants of food and animals’ dung.
She said: “Videos of an evil remorseless woman from Kebbi State that tied up an orphan who lost his mum for 2 whole years like a goat! He is impoverished and only ate from remnants of food and animal’s dung. Such cruelty….”
