- Killing of FUT don by 14-year-old house-help mirrors the depth of moral depravity in the land
Dr Funmilola Adefolalu, a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, has been allegedly killed by her 14-year-old home-help, Joy Afekafe, in connivance with two of her friends, Walex and Smart, who are on the run. Incredible as it sounds, the sad incident is a pointer to how common social ills have become. If the main suspect is merely 14 years old, it means that her alleged accomplices are also minors.
The tragedy and paradox is that the lecturer is dead and by the accounts from the Niger State Police Public Relations officer, Wasiu Abiodun, the home-help is now a homicide suspect. She had allegedly confessed to the crime because the late lecturer had sacked her for indiscipline just after three weeks of her employment, which came with a promise of sponsoring her education.
The prime suspect is an SS2 student of Day Secondary School, Gidan Kuka in Niger State. She had told the police that they decided to kill their victim because they feared she would report them to the police if they left her alive. They had gone to her house with a knife and equally used the knife from the victim’s kitchen.
We regret that the lecturer had to die so cruelly in the hands of these teenagers, but this incident points a torch to the level of moral decadence in the society. There has been loss of both family values and societal mores and ethos. Teenage criminal activities have been on the increase in the last few years. Indeed, there has been a plethora of reports of teenage drug abuse, cult activities, robberies, ritual activities and other social vices.
This particular case has many dimensions. How did a 14-year-old girl end up as a domestic help? She is a minor that still needs the nurture and care of parents or guardians. It is too early for a life of servitude. The state seems to have no law that criminalises child labour even when Nigeria is signatory to International Labour Organisation (ILO) Treaties and Acts protecting children. The late lecturer was literate enough to understand that. The tragedy brings to the fore the anti- child-labour acts that go on in the guise of education sponsorship, even if this victim had good intentions.
The criminality of the three suspects, no matter the surrounding analysis, is worrisome. How did the society degenerate to a level that even children can blatantly be so daring and violent?
No matter how the society may want to analyse the incident, it might never be divorced from the impunity and violence they see around. There is too much violence around and children act out what they see. The country has in almost all their lives been mired in the reportage of violence and violent activities by adults.
In the last few years, the same Niger State had seen a series of abductions, many violent deaths due to kidnappings and in some cases explosions caused by bandits that are never arrested. Even a reverend father had been brutally murdered in the parish house. No account of his killers is anywhere.
If we are to take the lead suspect’s confession about their intention for killing the lecturer, it was to run from the long arms of the law. Invariably, they have learnt that there have been no due diligence in nabbing criminals.
There has been a litany of employers killed by their domestic help across the country and we would imagine that employers of such labour should do better background checks rather than just employing individuals based on some vague reasons or pure sentiments. We recommend that future employers do better character and integrity searches to limit such incidences of employing criminals.
The police must do everything to arrest the other two suspects. They are minors and might not have too many options of where to run to hide.
We must revisit the issue of CCTV and constant electricity around the country. These ‘riddles’ are better solved with the help of CCTV. We wish that the law would be applied for justice for the living and the dead lecturer.
