Reports of bestial rape of minors by elderly men who, in some cases included the fathers of victims, have dominated the media landscape in recent time. INNOCENT DURU examines the reasons for the upsurge
Early last month, March to be precise, Nigerians woke up to a disturbing report of how a 35-year-old commercial motorcyclist, one Emmanuel, allegedly drugged his 12-year-old daughter before sleeping with her.
The Ikeja Special Offences Court, where the case was heard was told that he(Emmanuel) laced the girl’s drink with drug to make her sleepy before having carnal knowledge of her at their 35, Akewusola Street, Oworonsoki, Lagos home.
A witness, Dr Alagbe Oyedeji, of the Mirabel Centre, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, said the girl told him under examination how her father gave her soft drinks and ”I will fall asleep.”
The doctor was testifying in the charge preferred against Emmanuel for the alleged sexual assault of his daughter.Led in evidence by the prosecutor, A. O. Alagbe, of Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Oyedeji said the minor told him that her ordeal started in 2016 after she and her younger brother moved in with their father after their parents separated.
“The victim told me that her father came home from work one day and told her that he had heard rumours that she was no longer a virgin, and that he wanted to examine her by inserting his fingers into her private parts to see whether she was still a virgin or not.
“She said she became reluctant after her father told her that he wanted to use his manhood to test her virginity.
“When she refused, he beat her severely. He later became very nice and every night after he returned from work, he would give her soft drinks, then she would fall asleep and he would have his way.”
Oyedeji said when the minor started sleeping in school, her class teacher asked her what happened and the girl narrated what her father had been doing to her.
The teacher, he said, reported the matter to the Ketu Police Station and the defendant was arrested.
“I also discovered that her anal opening (anus) was loosened. There were also areas of laceration around the private parts and thighs. The injuries she sustained in her private parts and thighs showed recent and previous forceful penetration,” the doctor said.
The 12-year-old’s case is just one of the numerous cases of how malleable young ones are being sexually assaulted by those who should protect and put them on the right path in life.
Less than three weeks after the story became public, came a more disconcerting report of how a commercial driver, one Ogbar, allegedly raped his three daughters for several years.
Two of the daughters told Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Special Offences Court that the incidents occurred from when they were 10 and 12 years old, at their home at Oke-Ogbe, Atura, Badagry, Lagos State.
They testified against Ogbar during the continuation of his trial for the alleged offences.
One of them told the court that she endured sexual abuse from her father for five years from the age of 12 until she was 18.
She alleged: “When I was 12 years old, I was living with my mum and dad. My mother is not always around because she is a businesswoman. My father was a driver at that time.
“Whenever my mother was not around, he would come to me at night with a knife or screwdriver or something harmful to threaten me to allow him sleep with me. Because I was scared, I acceded to his requests for sex.
“It continued for a very long time. I could not tell anyone about it because I was scared. When I turned 18, he came to me one night, but I ran to my mum’s pastor, Mrs. Ochiegbu, and reported the incident to her.
“I hid in her church and my dad later came and told me to return home. He did not know that I had disclosed everything to them at the church. I stayed at the church till my mother returned and I went home with her.
“The next day, the pastor called my mother and told her everything. She was upset and did not know what to do.”
Early this month, April 12, to be precise, a 65-year-old man, Sulaiman, was arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly defiling a 10-year-old girl.
The arrest followed a complaint by the victim’s father, Fahinhun Mathew, who reported at the Idi-Iroko Divisional Police Headquarters that the suspect, who lives in their neighborhood, sent the girl on an errand, but when she returned, he lured her into his room and raped her.
The Nation gathered that after the alleged sexual abuse, the girl informed her father, which prompted him to report the incident at the police station.
Detectives, it was learnt, stormed Araromi Street, Ilase, where the suspect lives and he was arrested.
About the same period, a bricklayer bagged a life jail for defiling his niece.
An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court sentenced the bricklayer, Idowu Ismail Gbolahan, to life imprisonment for defiling his seven-year-old niece.
Justice Abiola Soladoye convicted Gbolahan, 30, after he pleaded guilty to the charge.
The prosecutor, Mrs. Fehinti Ogbemudia, told the court that the defendant took the victim from her grandmother’s room where she went to drink water to his own room to defile her.
She said: “The defendant suddenly carried the victim to his room and shut the door. He removed her pants and had sex with her. The victim’s scream attracted a neighbour, Ufot Esther, who led her rescue.
“The defendant made a confessional statement and the victim was referred to the Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, for medical examination, to corroborate her evidence.
“The statement and report are attached to the proof of evidence, which is before the court. We rely on Section 213 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2015.”
This list of the distasteful practices has failed to abate despite the public humiliation of those engaged in them.
Recently, a caterer, one Popoola, 23, allegedly defiled a seven-year-old girl in a commercial tricycle.
Popoola is presently facing charges bordering on child defilement filed against him by the Lagos State Government, before Justice Sybil Nwaka of Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court in Lagos.
According to the IPO, the complainant had sent his seven-year-old daughter on an errand to collect the balance from where she bought sachet (pure) water.
She said Popoola saw the girl while going on the errand, took her into a parked commercial tricycle and allegedly fingered her.
The IPO said a man, who saw them inside the commercial tricycle (Keke Marwa), challenged the defendant and the girl and dragged them to a church where her father was waiting for her.
“The man told her father that he saw the girl and Popoola in the parked tricycle, he asked the girl what they were doing there at that time of the day and she said Popoola was fingering her,” the IPO said.
While being cross-examined by the defence counsel, Mr. T. K Adeyiola, Chukwuede said Popoola had admitted that he defiled the minor.
Gender activists lament upsurge
Gender activists have expressed concern over the rising cases of sexual abuse of minors.
The Executive Director of Initiative for Sustaining Family Unity, a non-governmental organistion based in Lagos State, Kate Ibeanusi said the rising cases are simply disheartening. “I would have thought that after many years of raising awareness, advocating for legislations to punish offenders and with the willingness of government and security agencies to prosecute, that these horrendous crimes would abate. But alas! No! What we have is an increase in the crudest form with reckless abandon.
“Victims seem to be as vulnerable as they have always been with family and sometimes community members encouraging victims to back down on following through with their cases”.
Asked why the perpetrators engage in the practice, she said: “In my view, these older men are relics of an age long patriarchal systems that have refused to be dismantled. The sense of entitlement and disdain for constituted authority is at the core of continued sexual abuse of minors.”
Contrary to calls in some quarters that perpetrators of the heinous crime should be castrated, Ibeanusi said: “There is no punishment that can bring back a child’s innocence. I believe with continued raising of awareness, more training for security personnel, speedy decision on reported cases, and support of this process by community members, the menace will reduce.”
Also speaking, the brain behind #ArewaMeTooMovement, an online social media group that campaigns against sexual and gender based violence, Fakrryyah Hasim bemoaned the inhuman practice, saying: “It is a lot of shock when you get minors being sexually abused. Even though we have seen so many cases, that shock never goes away but then that is what makes it abnormal. When we begin to get used to it, that means we are getting desensitized which we can’t afford to.”
Like Ibeanusi, she also ruled out the castration of offenders as a solution to the menace. “Castration of offenders is a very emotional response to sexual assault. Let us come up laws that are actually working so that when something happens, the offenders don’t walk away.
“As of now, our laws have so many loopholes; the police are very ineffective and when an abuse occurs, the perpetrators end up walking away.
“Let’s actually get our laws working. When this is done, we can begin to work on implementing more stringent laws beyond five to 10 years or five to 15 years imprisonment.”
Also giving her view on why some men take pleasure in abusing minors, Fakrryyah said: “People who sexually assault minors and people who generally abuse people have to do with that tendency to feel the gush of power.
“Abuse, whether domestic or sexual is tied to power and authority. When you look at the greater number of the individuals who get raped or assaulted, it is about that power asymmetry.
“Minors being the most vulnerable along the chain of power disposition is why they account for the greater percentage of the development. It has to do with the level of vulnerability.”
The #ArewaMeTooMovement, according to her, has been facing a lot of harassments championing the cause of the victims: “We have faced a backlash, which was expected because we’re dealing with an ultra-conservative society that sees topics relating to sex as a taboo and unfortunately has condemned sexual violence in the same league as sex rather than a criminal offence. We have had one of our members, Maryam Awaisu, arrested by security outfits where Amnesty International and FIDA ensured her release.
“We have managed to get victims legal aid by pairing them with organisations that provide pro bono legal aid, and also we have paired a few victims with NGOs that provide therapy. We are currently working on creating structure around that which aids in pairing victims with different organisations more effectively and timely, a website is one, and a sheet form.”
The group, which activities has gone viral in many states in the North, according to her, started with only a tweet in support of breaking the silence on her experience of gender based violence. “I did not think it would gain traction after a week, which was following my tweets against another accused, which eventually caused massive traffic. In the first few days alone, we saw over 100 survivors reaching us to tell their stories.
“It gave them a platform that felt like a safe space, and they knew they would get support because of growing condemnation from the social media community. About 70% of the victims had been sexually assaulted from the ages of five to 10 years old, with most of them currently in their 20s. I suppose it took that long because most mentioned never being able to speak about it because they felt ashamed.”
Mental health challenges, globalisation effect fuelling menace -Psychologists
A psychologist, Dr Samson Femi Agberotimi , looked at the issue from two perspectives. “The first is the general moral decadence in the society which cuts across all cultures, all social ties and economic bounds. The crazy mindset of people for pleasure is also included. That, in a way, could actually make some people vulnerable to such act. Generally, a lot of things are getting worse in the society.
“From the psychological perspective, there is a part of mental illness that is highly related to an act like that. This includes the issue of peadophilia and people having a wrong sexual orientation.
Really, we cannot rule that out because looking at globalisation effect, lots of things that people are getting involved in that are not part of our culture or psychological orientation could have a link to why we are now having such cases of abnormal behaviour. It is not just about only about sexual abuse but sexual abuse of minors is one of what the society generally frowns at.
“If you look at the society now, there is a rise in cases of mental illness in recent times as it applies to depression and suicidal cases; also is the issue of substance use disorder.
A lot of the abusers have issues with their mental health. All these have a relationship. Explaining it from psychological perspective is not something you can just pin-point a particular factor.”
Proffering solution to the menace, he said: “Whatever effort that everybody can make to ensure the sense of moral uprightness is reawakened, especially in the upbringing of the children, should be done. What we were exposed to while growing up is different from what children of these days are exposed to. We are just seeing a manifestation of a wrong upbringing and societal values. If you want to correct that, definitely we need to go back to the issue of parenting and the issue of socialisation; what operates in schools, the media etc.
“We usually have people clamouring for physical health check-up; it is also important that everybody comes to the general awareness of their mental health. If everybody does this by having a regular contact with specialists like psychologists and psychiatrists, then if there is anything that is going wrong, we can check it. We also need to inculcate proper sex education into the young ones; proper sex education so that everybody will know his or her rights. A young boy or girl knows he has rights to his or her private parts.”
Another psychologist, Johnson Ibidapo, said: “The challenge has been with us for quite a long time. It is only now that attention is being given to it. People having intercourse with minors is a psychological condition we call paedophilia. Several factors are responsible for this condition. Such persons experience some very strange urges and are not aroused by pretty ladies but by minors. It is a psychological condition and it requires help.
“Watching pornography films, especially ones that have to do with the child, can lead to this. Watchers and users of child-porn are likely to be child abusers.
“Also, people who were abused as children have the tendency of becoming child abusers themselves. Paedophilia is a psychological condition for which therapy is needed. It is very, very important that people know that it is a problem that needs solution.”
He further said: “Cases of sexual abuse of underage have always been under reported. Before now, parents had always been keeping quiet thinking that the backlash will be a problem.
