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Tag: victim

  • Six-year-old Boko Haram victim: I want to walk again

    Six-year-old Boko Haram victim: I want to walk again

    •Foundation to the rescue

    For six-year old Boko Haram victim Ali Ahmadu, who is battling a spinal cord injury, it is not over – thanks to his courage and help from a foundation.

    He left yesterday for corrective surgery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    The surgery is being bankrolled by Dickens Sanomi Foundation, which was established by Mr. Igho Sanomi who owns the Taleveras Group. It will cost $48,000 (about N17.5million).

    Ali, who left the country aboard an Ethiopian Airline flight with his aunt, is expected back within three months.

    He said repeatedly in Hausa: “Ina so insake tafiya da kafana…Don Allah ataimakamu…Don Allah. Ina so in je makaranta”. (“I want to begin to walk with my legs again. For God’s sake, assist me. I want to go to school”).

    Ali’s aunt, Mrs. Hannatu Madu, told reporters: “We are looking forward to God to make this surgery successful. He is a promising boy.

    But he became a victim of Boko Haram’s invasion of Chibok. In the last three years, he has not been able to walk.”

    The Founder of GIPLC, Mr. Nuhu Fulani Kwajafa, explained that Ali was overrun by Boko Haram terrorists’ motorcycles when they ransacked Chibok community a few days after abducting the Chibok girls in April 2014.

    He said: “Ali has spinal cord injury.

    “Ali was being carried by his pregnant mother who was struggling to escape from the Boko Haram attackers but fell down as she was trying to run and Ali fell off her back and he was overrun by the terrorists.

    “With mother and child seriously injured, Ali was kept under a tree for about three days awithout any form of medication. He was bleeding from mouth and nose.

    “Ali has remained bed-ridden as a result of his spinal cord injury.”

    He explained how GIPLC and Dickens Sanomi Foundation collaborated on the corrective surgery.

    “We got to know about his condition and began to mobilise for his treatment when someone called from Chibok and narrated his pitiful condition to us.

    We brought him to Abuja and began to mobilise support for his corrective surgery in Dubai.

    “We are taking him to Dubai today and hopefully he will be restored to his normal condition. We are confident that after the surgery he will be back on his feet.”

    “We moved into action immediately to raise the $65,000 required for the surgery in Dubai.

    “Fortunately for us after meeting some Nigerians for assistance, including Senate President Bukola Saraki and some Nigerian lawmakers, we approached the Dickens Sanomi Foundation, which has graciously made available the balance of $48,000 needed for the surgery.”

    A member of the foundation’s board of trustees of Dickens Sanomi Foundation, Hayi Goodluck, said: “We decided to mobilise the funds required to give little Alli Ahmadu corrective surgery in Dubai so as to save his life and give him a future.

    “We are already so excited about the prospect of a new lease of life for Ali and we promise to stand by him before, during and after the surgery in Dubai.

    “The Dickens Sanomi Foundation will not only cater for him in Dubai but will also take up his education upon his return from surgery all in a deliberate bid to stabilise him and help him to live and actualise his dream as a man created by God.

    “We want to assure Ali, his family and Nigerians that the Dickens Sanomi Foundation will not abandon him in his moment of dire need. We stand by him to the end. Indeed, the Chairman of the Dickens Sanomi Foundation has set his heart on Ali. He has a soft spot for him.”

  • Ambode donates N5m to widow of kidnap victim

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has donated N5million to the widow and children of Osaze Omoregbe, a community leader in Isawo, Ikorodu who was burnt by kidnappers for leading security agents to foil their operation.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Community & Communications, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, on behalf of the governor, presented the cheque to Omorogbe’s widow and children at a solemn ceremony at the family’s Isawo, Ikorodu home.

    The deceased is survived by his widow Mrs. Omodunni and two children, Adesuwa and Osaze.

    The late Omoregbe led the security committee of the Olorunsogo Community Development Association of Yewa community, in Isawo, Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area (LCDA).

    On April 15, he alerted the police on hearing kidnappers’ gunshots seeking to capture a victim.

    On arrival, the police and soldiers asked him to lead them to the area. All of them, including an army Captain and four policemen, were ambushed by the kidnappers and killed.

    Yesterday, Bamigbetan, who was received by the Chairman of the Community Development Association, Mr. Ahmed Yusuf, praised the late Omoregbe for “his heroic role.”

    Reading the condolence message personally signed by the governor, Bamigbetan said the deceased “paid the supreme price” while responding to the government’s charge to community development associations to support its effort to rid the state of kidnappers.

    Part of the condolence message reads: “It is with deep grief that I share your sorrow on the unfortunate death of your father, husband and breadwinner, Mr. Osaze Omoregbe.

    “At a time our administration is consolidating partnership with our communities and their courageous and committed leaders, your benefactor stood up to be counted. He supported the forces of light seeking to crush the notorious kidnappers who had turned your neighbourhood into a jungle of death. In that patriotic response to our call to join hands and collectively secure our communities, he paid the supreme price.”

    Receiving the cheque, Omoregbe’s widow, Mrs. Omodunni, who was short of words, broke into tears.

    Speaking on behalf of the Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area (LCDA), the chairperson, Mrs. Jumoke Ademehin-Jumbo thanked the government for coming to the rescue of the family.

    Bamigbetan, Senior Special Assistant on Community Affairs Alhaji Tajudeen Quadri, Ademehin-Jumbo, the chairperson of the Community Development Committee Alhaja K.A. Damole and their teams prayed at the graveside of the deceased.

  • How two brothers raped me, by victim

    How two brothers raped me, by victim

    A 22-year-old woman, Emmanuela Zaccheus, yesterday told an Ikeja High Court how two brothers, Bright and Chijindu Nwachukwu, raped and defrauded her of N19,000.

    Bright (31) and Chijindu  (23) are being tried by Justice Josephine Oyefeso for alleged rape and obtaining money by false pretence.

    The offence, according to the prosecutor, Mrs C.K Tunji- Carrena, is contrary to Sections 135 , 137 and 312 (3) of the Criminal law of Lagos State, 2011.

    Led in evidence by the prosecutor, the victim, a Biology graduate and an entrepreneur, said she met Bright for the first time on February 12 at Iyana Ipaja, on her way to the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka.

    She maintained that she had never met him prior to that day.

    The witness said the defendant spoke to her in French and asked her where Diamond warehouse is. She said she did not know where it is.

    She said there was a man with Bright who asked her to describe the place to him if she knew there.

    The witness said after she left the men she realised that she could not meet up with her appointment and decided to return home.

    According to the witness, she saw Bright and the other man again on her way home and he asked the same question. She said she maintained that she did not know the place.

    “I wanted to be on my way but the other man that was with him pleaded with me to help him. At this point, Bright handed him some foreign currencies. He held my hand and said that we should follow him.

    “At that moment, I didn’t know what I was doing again, I just followed them and we crossed to the other side of the road at Iyana-Ipaja and boarded a bus towards Sango. I paid the transport fare for the three of us and we later alighted at a bus-stop which I didn’t know the name.

    “We took a tricycle to another place where we met the second defendant  Chijindu who disguised as a store-keeper. We entered the place and they brought out something that looks like a photo-film and washed it in a liquid and it turned into a N1000 note.

    “ He folded the money and asked me to take a bite and take an oath that if I tell anyone about what is taking place, I would die,” she said.

    Chijindu, the witness said, told her to bring some money so that they could print more money but she did not have cash on her.

    “He collected my Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, pin number and headed to the bank. While they (second defendant and storekeeper) were away, the first defendant asked me if I eat fish and I replied in the affirmative. He again reminded me that I would die as a result of the oath I had with him earlier if I tell anybody about what happened.

    “I became so scared and I started crying and I pleaded with him that I don’t want to die. Bright then told me that the only option to avoid death is to have sex with me. I started begging him again not to have sex with me but he eventually had his way.

    “When Chijindu came from where he had gone to withdrew the N19,000 that I had in my bank account, he ordered me to delete the alert message sent by my bank. He also came back with another man who claimed to be a pastor.  He brought in a bucket of water and after looking through it, he said my mother has some money in her drawer and I should go home and bring the whole money. He instructed me not to talk to anyone until I accomplished the mission”, Zaccheus.

    The witness said she caught a glimpse of a sign post “Toluwalase” and memorised it.

    She said when she got home, she met her mother and her brother who later told her that she was acting strange and restless.

    “My mother later came to me and held me, seeking to know what happened to me and I told her I don’t want to die. She was shocked and we were both crying. My mother told me that God is the owner of my life and I came back to my senses and told her all that happened.”

    According to the witness, her mother called her pastor and she was taken to the family hospital because of the sexual assault. The witness said she was referred to St Leo hospital in Ikeja.

    Zaccheus said the matter was reported at Area G Police Station in Ogba from where she was referred to Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for check- up and counselling.

    Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, Mr. Ikenna Okoli, the witness insisted that she gave her ATM to the second defendant and money was withdrawn from her account.

    She also insisted that the first defendant had sex with her without her consent.

    The matter was thereafter adjourned till October 10, 2017 for continuation of trial.

  • Burn victim needs N2m for surgery

    Burn victim needs N2m for surgery

    The family of Mr Jimoh Arola is seeking financial assistance for plastic surgery on their 35-year-old daughter, Afuzat Jimoh, whose face, hands, neck and chest were burnt  following her fall into boiling oil in Ejigbo, Lagos State.

    The woman, who just gave birth when the incident happened eight years ago, was said to be suffering from a sickness which made her to fall into the boiling oil. She was said to be frying meat to prepare food when the incident happened.

    The incident has, however, left her with a  scary look, which has hindered her from living the life she desired.

    Afusat said she had no choice than to sit down at home all day. “I don’t have a choice than to go to the streets to beg for means of livelihood. I am hale and hearty and my brain is intact. Even though, I lost one eye to the incident, I can talk, work and do any kind of business, but my physical look will scare people away.  If I am able to do the plastic surgery, I will be able to live a normal life again,” she said.

    She continued:“Before the incident, I was into sales of provisions. I was married and I was nursing a baby. But, during my treatment at LASUTH, which took over a year, I lost my baby, probably due to lack of motherly care; I was not available to breast feed her and she rejected baby food. My husband was also nowhere to be found during my treatment. It was about a year after the incident that I heard that he died in an accident. My mother was also away for over five years under the pretext that she went to look for money. My aged sick father could do little or nothing to help my condition.”

    Her uncle, AbdulahiAyinla, who visited The Nation in search of help for his niece, said the girl was too young to live the rest of her life begging for alms or relying on family members for help.

    He said her present look would not enable her get a job, do business or get married. “We have taken her to several homes to work as house maid, but whenever people see her face-to-face, they reject her,”he said.

    He explained how the incident happened: “Afusat suffers from a sickness that makes her dizzy. When it strikes, she feels dizzy and she will fall down if she has nowhere to rest on. On that day, she was frying meat, when the sickness struck her and she fell into boiling oil which caught fire. She was meant to prepare food in the house of her father’s younger brother, whom she took her baby to visit. It took the intervention of a Good Samaritan to remove her from the fire. She was treated at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). But she needs plastic surgery to look normal again. A doctor in LASUTH told us that the operation can be done in LASUTH; she will require four stages of the surgery and each would cost at least 500,000, about N2 million,”he said.

    He recalled that when Afusat’s baby died, they did not let her know until about three years after to prevent the news from adding more problems to her health.

    “We need help, we are not particular about getting the money or seeing it. Anybody, who wants to help us should go to LASUTH to make payment and let us know. All we need is for the operation to be done.”

    “Her father should have been the one going round to seek help for her, but his health hindered him.  Our family cannot afford the means to operate on her.There is no work she can do with her condition. If she sells food, no one will stand in her front. If she sells provisions, no one will buy. If we take her to anywhere to work as maid, no one will allow her work with them. We need help,” he said.

    An account has been opened with the UBA. The account name is Afusat Jimoh and the number is 2094038600. She can be reached on 09051602282, while Ayinla can be reached on 08023446178.

  • ‘How I landed in jail’, by victim

    ‘How I landed in jail’, by victim

    A manager with a gaming outfit around Idi-Oro has relived his encounter with the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) operatives.
    Hallelujah Olalekan who works with Super Bet Shop on Agege Motor Road, Idi-Oro said he was one of the eight persons arrested by the task force.
    Olalekan told The Nation that he spent three days in Kirikiri prison after being charged to court.
    He said he was charged with attacking the agency’s enforcement team and vandalising its operational vehicle, among other offences.
    Olalekan, a footballer, said he wanted his name cleared because he is not a miscreant, threatening to go to court to enforce his right against the task force.
    He said: “On that fateful day, February 20, I was in the shop of my cousin, Amdalat Oluwawomiloju on Agege Motor Road when I was arrested alongside two other people, Lateef Amzat and Femi Adebayo.
    “I was not aware that anything was wrong in that area that day. I was in my shop when my cousin called me to come to her shop and help her pack her goods inside. She is a food vendor. When I was done, we noticed that people were running in the area. We could not run with them because we did not know why or where they were running to, so my cousin told me that we should lock ourselves inside the shopping complex. We were five people in the complex – me, my cousin, my pregnant sister, Amzat and Adebayo. We locked the complex gate with padlock and sat on chairs in the compound. We later noticed that the police used their gun and broke the padlock to gain entrance. We did not move, nor panic, hoping that they were coming to ask us questions. They entered the complex and started beating all of us, including my pregnant sister.
    “My aged cousin tried to explain to the policemen that we were all her children, but they did not listen. They beat all of us. They later arrested me, Amzat and Adebayo, and took us inside the Black Maria.
    “They drove us to their office. I tried to explain to them that I knew nothing about the matter but they said they will put us in jail, which they eventually did. We were taken to court, they charged us but I said I was not guilty. We were told to pay charges of N100,000 and a surety worth N100,000.
    “I spent three days in Kirikiri Prison, I was called last Wednesday that I have been bailed, but the other two guys are still there,” he said.
    He described life in the prison as ‘’bad and full of suffering’’.
    Olalekan added that he did not eat throughout his sojourn in prison, saying the kind of food served there is bad.
    “The environment where they cook the food is not clean. I was beaten in the prison, more than I was beaten when I wanted to be arrested. They just beat and torture us for no just cause,” he said.

  • Magu, victim of government of Non politicians

    The echo of Buhari’s if ‘we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us’ has continued to resonate. He has however devoted the last 16 months of his administration to a crusade against only those who have explicitly stated ‘stealing government funds is not corruption’, leaving those who are directly responsible for the current depression through their mismanagement of the privatization policy that scuttled the IMF projected seven million jobs, and turned our country to importers of labour of other nations with millions of our own youths thrown into the unemployment market.

    And because the nation has been frightened into frenzy by the level of debauchery exposed on daily basis by government, we have failed to acknowledge that part of our current problem is the preponderance of men of faith rather than politicians in government. The result is a regime that seems to daily find excuses for failure by blaming its predecessors whose forces including those used by Ibori and Saraki to run Ribadu out of town and Magu out of EFCC into detention are still visible in government. Unlike advanced democracies driven by Orwell’s fictional Nineteen Eighty Four, where everyone is a slave to the state, we are piloted by a physically exhausted 74 years old Buhari, a national icon who would rather run the state by prayers than politics. He is ably supported by an equally apolitical but praying Vice President, Pastor Osinbajo. There is also Pastor Babachir, the SGF.  A few others who hold critical position in government are said to fuel intra party crisis in order to present themselves as alternative to physically fatigued Buhari in 2019 in case he chooses not to run. Conspicuously missing in Buhari’s team are the real politicians.

    Raged against President Buhari on the other side are his well known adversaries hooded in APC cloak. They live and thrive through intrigue, serial betrayals and opportunism. They blame Buhari for all the woes of the country including the continued sabotage of the economy by ravaging Niger Delta Avengers they secretly sponsored and equipped. Their open antagonism to Buhari’s war on corruption finally found expression in their refusal to confirm Magu as chairman of EFCC last week.

    The script was modelled after the one used to take over the Senate. Giving themselves enough time to perfect the script, they had held on to President Buhari’s request for five months. Then as if the Senate was doing Nigeria a favour after the long delay, the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, announced at plenary on Wednesday that the confirmation hearing would hold on Thursday – the following morning.  Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption chairman, Chukwuka Utazi, PDP-Enugu, went on to confirm to Premium Times the hearing would hold as scheduled.  But curiously on Thursday morning, the Senate failed to list the Magu’s confirmation in the Order Paper. Those who understand how the Senate Mafia operates will agree the chamber did not receive the DSS report that was deployed to scuttle Magu’s confirmation only that morning.

    Unfortunately many of us who as columnists try to interpret government action for the benefit of the public have not been of much help to President Buhari. When he postponed quenching of a raging fire in his house until the very morning the election of the Senate leadership was to take place, we attributed his naive ‘I am ready to work with anyone’ as respect for independence of four arms of government. We justified government indolence for spending six months to constitute a cabinet, a task often executed within 24 in other democracies. When reminded that those who did not contribute to his electoral success or understand the policy thrust of APC have hijacked his presidency, we allowed the President to get away with a righteous indignation that he understands politics better than anyone else on account of having contested for the presidency three times. When Pa Bisi Akande first raised alarm about the self-serving group that was set to destabilise the APC they had worked hard to build, we wrongly credited Buhari with Fulani’s famed mastery of power politics.

    Now with an  attempted derailment of Buhari’s war on corruption by the Senate using  Daura’s DSS report and the SGF alleged award of contracts to the company in which he has an interest using the Senate Ad Hoc committee report, the pertinent question is who Daura is working for?  How come Saraki and his ‘Like Mind Senators’ who have demonstrated their opposition to the President’s war on corruption had the DSS report ahead of the executive that controls the awesome apparatus of state power. We can then proceed to ask how come the DSS brief about  Magu’s alleged flight to Maiduguri alongside Mohammed and  Nnamdi Okonkwo of Fidelity Bank who are being investigated by his commission and the alleged award of contract by FCDA to his Africa Energy to lavishly furnish his residence at a cost of N43m was never passed to the President before Magu’s name was forwarded to the Senate for confirmation.

    How come DSS that organized a sting operation at the middle of the night to retrieve alleged proceeds of corruption from residences of some Supreme Court justices was unable to capture an abuse of office by the SGF who has not denied awarding contracts to ‘Rholavision’, a company he claimed to have founded in 1990 but from whose board he claimed to have resigned in 2015. The two tragic events seem to vindicate the claim by many concerned Nigerians including the President’s wife  that some of those currently surrounding  the President are working neither for Buhari nor Nigeria but for themselves.

    And once again, it will appear Buhari and his APC government of men of faith has been outwitted by Saraki and his ‘like mind senators’. The forces that demoted Ribadu, chased him out of the country, and replaced him with a candidate of their own choice; arrested, detained and suspended Magu from the police for several months without salary before he was finally transferred out of EFCC ‘for illegally keeping case files of top politicians being investigated by EFCC in his house’ until he was rehabilitated by President Jonathan are still very influential in Buhari’s government of change.

    The immediate target and victim is Magu, regarded by his peers as ‘an incorruptible and courageous officer’, who as head of the sensitive unit charged with the investigation of senior public officers, investigated the role of  Bukola Saraki in the collapse of  Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria as well as James Ibori, former Governor of Delta  currently serving jail term in London  in addition to recording in one year, more high profile convictions than all his   predecessors put together.  The ultimate target however is Buhari’s war on corruption which they intend to discredit

  • Police kill four suspected kidnappers in victim’s rescue

    Police kill four suspected kidnappers in victim’s rescue

    The police have killed four members of a gang that kidnapped a doctor at St. Francois Hospital in Onikan, Lagos, last week.

    They were gunned down inside Ibeju-Lekki forest on Friday during a police operation to rescue the doctor.

    The police, it was learnt, recovered a gun, the vehicle used to kidnap the doctor, and clothes believed to belong to other victims.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP), said Dr Ajayi was rescued around 9:10pm. He has been reunited with his family.

    She confirmed that the kidnappers kept him inside the forest.

    “The command would do everything within its means to rid Lagos of criminal elements,” said Badmos.

  • Police investigate alleged suicide, say victim was killed

    Police investigate alleged suicide, say victim was killed

    The police in Lagos have dismissed reports that a motorcyclist simply identified as Tunde committed suicide following disagreement with his wife.

    Tunde, a resident of Tokyo Street, Edun, Aburo, Agbado Oke.was found by his neighbours on Sunday morning dead at an uncompleted building on Aluko street.

    There was a long rope hanging his neck to the decking of the building.

    It was gathered that the deceased had scuffles with his wife who moved out of his home, leading him to depression.

    It was learnt that the miegjnours who discovered his dangling body contacted the police who took photographs of the crime scene and evacuated the corpse.

    Reacting to the incident, the command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP) told The Nation that prelimanary investigations have revealed that the deceased was murdered.

    She said: “We have ruled out the possibility of suicide because prelimanary investigations show that the man was killed. We do not know him. We only know his name is Tunde. He was strangled from our findings and we are trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

    “For now, the case is under discreet investigation. All I can tell you is that it was not suicide. Police investigation will reveal more in due time.”

  • Rape victim’s ordeal and police

    Reports of the abduction of Dr.Ime Stephen, uncle to the 15-year old school girl, Mary Udo, allegedly raped at gunpoint by a police Inspector in Akwa Ibom State, represent the apogee of the travails of the family since the rape incident took place.

    It is at once a dangerous development that calls for the immediate intervention of the Inspector-General of Police as insinuations are very high that the incident has an uncanny link with the rape saga.

    Before his abduction, Citizen Stephen had reportedly escaped assassination attempt at his village house at Nyaodiong, in the MkpatEnin Local Government Area of the state. He had also petitioned the state Commissioner of Police, Murtala Mani, alleging threat to his life, that of his family members, attempted arson on his new house and malicious damage of property.

    He also had cause to visit the CP penultimate Friday to complain of frequent attacks on him and how to get justice for Udo. Before his latest fate, the victim was pressing hard for the matter not to be swept under the carpet after refusing to accede to entreaties from some clergymen and police officers sent to him by the Divisional Police Officer DPO to let the matter go.

    Those sent to him by the DPO of the MpatEnin local government were said to have persuaded him to pipe down on the grounds that the incident was not only a big shame to the offending Inspector but the police establishment he represents. But as things stood, Citizen Stephen would not allow the matter go apparently in deference to the rape victim who had said “it was a harrowing experience. There is nothing on earth that would make me forgive the inspector”.

    The little girl’s feelings are understandable given that the inspector not only allegedly raped her at gunpoint while returning from church but detained her for three harrowing days and made the family to cough out N10, 000 before setting her free. That is the height of criminality unexpected of those paid with taxpayers’ money to protect the society. It is a big scandal that by now ought to have attracted deserved attention from the police authorities.

    It is bad a thing that a police officer of that rank could degenerate to such a bestial and criminal level of raping a school girl returning from church at gunpoint. Worse still, he also had the temerity to detain her for three days and forced the family to pay N10, 000 for her safety. These are enough to ruffle public sensibility in saner societies.

    In an issue as serious as this, the minimum expectation is for the accused to be made to face the full weight of the law without delay. But all indications have not pointed to this direction. For, it is about a month now the incident happened without the public being availed the benefit of any serious action taken against him. Rather, what we find is an attempt by the police to paper the matter as vividly indicated by the emissaries they sent to the victims’ uncle.

    Unfortunately, Udo’s family would not have such things covered up because it could encourage policemen to take laws into their hands in anticipation that the system would have a way of protecting them. This column identifies with the Udo family in condemning this singular rape incident and the lawlessness that followed. It cannot and should not be swept under the table. It is a very heinous offence with prospects of further denting the image and credibility of the police force.

    It is trite that the course of the police force will be better served when it distances itself from the criminal activities of its men and officers by taking decisive steps to discourage the resort to criminality. Even if the police had need to apologize to the victim’s family for the bestial treatment meted to their daughter, that should not in any way detract from the fact that the accused must still be made to pay for his sins.

    The accused inspector whose name up till now, is being shielded by the police should immediately be made to face the music for the unmitigated disgrace he is to the institution. That way, we will be sending the right signals that those who abuse their positions of trust for self-serving reasons will not go scot free. That is the lesson that must be underscored most poignantly in the instant case.

    Curiously, the abduction of Stephen has added another dangerous dimension to the matter. This is especially so given that before his latest ordeal, he had escaped an assassination attempt to his life. He had also alleged threats to his life, that of his family, attempted arson on his new house and malicious damage of his property. All these were documented in a petition he sent to the state Commissioner of Police CP.

    Ironically, not much is known of the response of the CP to these allegations before the man was finally abducted from his house by masked gunmen who broke through the wall from the backyard. Neither is there any evidence of the provision of police protection to the man in the face of the serial threats to his life and that of his family.

    And until the CP speaks on the latest development, the impression we get is that the command did not take seriously the copious complaints of the human rights activist. But if the police did not take seriously the issues raised in the petition, the abduction has shown very vividly that either it underestimated the weight of the matter or turned a blind eye to it for inexplicable reasons.

    For whatever reason, it is sad that the fears of Stephen have come true. If the police had taken the matter seriously, they would have responded positively by building some form of security around the Udo family. Had that been done, we would have saved the police institution the embarrassment of having to contend with the reality of this abduction despite repeated complaints and allegations of threats to life and property.

    That is the burden the police has to shoulder given the latest development. It also suffers vicarious responsibility of having to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that this abduction is not in any way connected with the family’s insistence that justice must be done in the case of the inspector that raped, abused and extorted money from the innocent school girl.

    There is no better way to demonstrated this than a quick apprehension of the marauding gang that abducted Stephen. With the smashing of the gang and freeing of the rights activist, we will be demonstrating to the world very unambiguously that the cries of the witch at night had nothing to do with the death of the child in the morning. That is the uncanny reality that has been elevated to the fore by the unfolding events surrounding that rape case.

    It is important that the police authorities get to the root of the matter to demonstrate very clearly that the current twist is not in any manner linked to the family’s insistence that the offending inspector must face the wrath of the law. A quick apprehension of those criminals will not only disabuse insinuations of complicity but further shore up the waning public confidence in the ability of the police to protect and treat information given to them with utmost confidentiality.

    We now run the risk of allowing the impression fester that those charged with the security of the citizens can trample on and serially abuse such privileges and get away with them. That is the point where the predicament of Stephen now leaves us. We must work to reverse this ruinous tendency by promptly apprehending the abductors and secure Stephen’s freedom. The IG must act now to extricate the police from it actions or inaction that led to the current pass. But nothing untoward should happen to Citizen Stephen.

  • Bullying scandal rocks elite Lagos school as victim suffers dual fractures

    Bullying scandal rocks elite Lagos school as victim suffers dual fractures

    Parents accuse high school authorities of shielding mystery
    perpetrator in elaborate cover-up School expresses
    disappointment, dismiss allegations as ‘very wrong’

    The school was silent when Ebunoluwa Adegboyega became the bullies’ favourite. At age 10, her bruises were legion. Her mind was a mist of scars. But nobody could see her wince. Through her ordeal, a battle ravaged in Ebunoluwa’s head; harsh words lunged like savages to scathe her fragile mien. The bullies called her “Orobo,” and that was almost too farfetched, as Ebunoluwa didn’t exactly cut the picture of obesity – at least by her parents’ standards.

    While the bullies taunted her over size, Ebunoluwa lived the blithe life of a castle princess in her parent’s homestead. Nonetheless, the 10-year-old student of Junior Secondary School One (J.S.S.1) class, Grace Schools, Gbagada, Lagos, stirred every morning with a violent tremor in her heart. As she dressed up for school, she girded up like a medieval warrior, to brave the taunts and insolent jeers of peer that deemed it fit to pick on her.

    From whispered slurs and spoken taunts about her size, which often elicited the derisive remark, ‘Orobo,’ to the occasional blow on the head from the palm and book of “Uchenna,” one of her alleged assailants, Ebunoluwa suffered interminable hurt and sorrow in pursuit of a high school education.

    Her experience at Grace Schools was hardly what she and her parents expected at her resumption in the educational facility. But it was easier not to ask too many questions or raise a ruckus about Ebunoluwa’s plight. Although her mother, Dr. Bande Adegboyega, a gynecologist, wished to raise hell, her father, Dr. Temitope Adegboyega, a pediatrician, believed in letting the hostilities thaw out. “Children will always play,” he said,

    But that childish ‘play’ would degenerate into a vicious encounter. Ebunoluwa, unfortunately, could neither avoid nor ride the tide of the playful viciousness. A trip to the school canteen would cost the 10-year-old and her parents very much. On April 15, 2016, during lunch break, somebody shoved Ebunoluwa violently from the back while she stood outside the school canteen. She fell face down; the impact of her fall crushed both her legs and bruised her skin. Consequently, Ebunoluwa suffered fractures on both legs.

     

    Ebunoluwa’s story: ‘They did not try to find out who pushed me’

    “On that day, I went to the dining hall to eat during lunch break in my school. When I came out of the canteen, I came out with three people in my class. Their names are Jumaima, Grace and Sophia. I talked to them a little. Then they started moving on their own. They were going. When I now wanted to take my own step, someone came from the back and pushed me. I didn’t see the person that pushed me. My three classmates didn’t see the person that pushed me. We were all backing the person.

    “I fell on my face. Then I started calling for help. One boy, a J.S.S 2 student, came to carry me to the clinic. In the clinic, the nurse put Savlon (an antiseptic) and bandage on my left leg. I was bleeding from that leg and a wound on my right leg. I was crying because it was very painful.

    “Then she said she would fix my bone back but I had a fracture and she could not fix my bone back. Then she put bandage on my leg. I could not leave the clinic on my own. I could not walk on my legs,” said Ebunoluwa.

     

    What happened to her was an act of wickedness – Victim’s mom

    Shedding light on the intrigues, Ebunoluwa’s mom, Dr. Bande Adegboyega, a gynaecologist, said: “On April 15, I was called. I had a phone call from the school nurse that I should come to the school that my daughter could not walk. While I was in the school, the driver brought Ebunoluwa with the nurse. I saw her in the car. She was crying. She was in serious pains. I looked at her legs and I noticed that they had bandaged one leg, that was the leg that was fractured, and the other leg was plastered.

    “I was angry. I said they should bring her out immediately. At this point, the Principal, Mr. Ronald Cilliers, a South African, came and I challenged him: ‘I thought you had CCTV camera that covers the school?’ What surprised me however, was that the principal was too much on the defensive, trying to cover up for the school…We told the principal that what happened to her must be an act of wickedness and that we would like to see the person responsible for her accident. Instantly, he became very defensive. He said I shouldn’t say it was an act of wickedness. I didn’t see empathy in him so I just ignored him,” she said.

    According to the victim’s mom, Ebunoluwa was not running when she was pushed, she was not standing on a ledge or some other elevated outthrust from the ground or platform. “She was on level ground. I saw the spot,” said Dr. Adegboyega.

    There is no gainsaying Dr. Adegboyega met her daughter in a state of agonising pain. Her left leg was very swollen from the knee down to the feet. Also, the right leg which had a deep cut and had bled a lot, was plastered, while the fractured leg was bandaged. She was informed that Ebunoluwa had been administered Paracetamol. The gynaecologist, thus on her own, unaccompanied by any member of the school, rushed her daughter to the Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos. She was later transferred to the Orthopaedic clinic, Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada.

     

    Echoes of indifference and undetected fracture

    Dr. Adegboyega expresssed her disappointment at the school’s reaction to her daughter’s plight. “I was surprised that none of them called me from the school afterwards, to ask me what happened or enquire about my daughter’s health. This made me very angry. At the hospital, we did x-ray and confirmed that she suffered fracture on her left leg. But because she was able to stand on the other leg, we didn’t know that there was something wrong with her right leg. But soon we noticed blisters on her right leg. We consulted one of the consultants at the Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi and the consultant emphasised that the blisters were telltale signs that there was something wrong with Ebunoluwa’s right leg. The consultant surgeon confirmed that they were fracture blisters and that we shouldn’t have allowed her to stand on that leg.

    “So they put Plaster of Paris (POP) on her left leg and ordered an x-ray of her right leg. The x-ray revealed that Ebunoluwa had also suffered fracture on her right leg. The consultant recommended that we confined her to a wheel chair pending the time that her fractures would heal.

    “We took her home and still nobody called us from the school. I now got angry and invited a lawyer. We called the Principal but he persistently ignored our calls again. The father subsequently called the Vice Principal to complain about the school’s nonchalance to our child’s plight,” she said.

    Corroborating her, Dr. Temitope Adegboyega, Ebunoluwa’s father, stated that the Vice Principal later came to meet them in Igbobi with the school’s chaplain. “He said we should give Ebunoluwa adequate medical treatment. He said we should not mind the Principal. He said we should give her all the treatment that she needed claiming the school would foot the bill.”

     

    Seeking recompense

    Afterwards the parents, accompanied by their attorney, and a close relative, allegedly held a meeting with the Vice- Principal of the School on April 19 and April 26, 2016 respectively. At the meeting, the Vice Principal reportedly assured them that the management of the school was ready to bear the costs of treatment of the injury and to also take on the responsibility of transportation of Ebunoluwa, to and from the school premises every day.

    Efforts made by their lawyer to see the Principal, both in his office and on phone, and get his commitment on the above however proved abortive as he bluntly refused to give any audience, disclosed Dr. Adegboyega. The family thus, represented by their lawyer, also made demands in the letter dated April 18, 2016 as follows: that the full cost implication of treatment, nursing care and consequent management of the victim will be borne by the school management. They also demanded that the result of the investigation carried out by the school should be sent to the office of the family’s lawyer within one week of the completion and penalties imposed on the perpetrator. They demanded that Ebunoluwa’s safety be guaranteed and security measures in the school strengthened.

     

    A history of bullying

    Before Ebunoluwa’s accident, there had been previous incidents. According to her mom, “She had been bullied. She said one boy (Uchenna) used to hit her on the head. I told the father but he dismissed it, stating that it’s one of the pranks children indulge in among themselves. Even Ebunoluwa’s teacher, Mr. Balogun, said she was one of the most gentle students in the class. She was no troublemaker. She was a victim of bullying. She was persistently picked on by her mates because of her size. They called her ‘Orobo.’ The Vice Principal said we should have reported the situation a long while ago.”

     

    Discordant tunes

    The VP, Balogun subsequently provided a driver to convey Ebunoluwa to and from school every day, until the school went on midterm break. To our surprise, the following Monday, which was the school’s resumption day, we waited till 9 am and the driver that used to come for Ebunoluwa did not show up. I went to the school to see the VP but he told me off. He said my daughter should not resume in school as she was a debtor. He said my daughter was a debtor and the rule is that she must not come in. He said they only allowed her into the school that day on compassionate grounds. I was angry. I reminded him that the school did not foot the bill of my child’s medical treatment as he promised and that they abandoned us and forced us to handle the medical bills which was over N500, 000.

    “But he told me to go and pay the school fees. He said we can go ahead and do whatever we liked. He said the school has competent Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) that can prolong the case. He said what can we do with our small lawyer? He said he had been personally responsible for providing transportation for my daughter to and from school all along. He said the school was never ready to assist.

    “So we paid her school fees and she resumed on another day. But since the driver the VP provided had stopped coming, her father started taking her to and from school every day,” she said.

     

    ‘Leave everything to God’

    Further findings suggested shady manoeuvrings after the incident. The VP reportedly instructed Ebunoluwa’s classmates to write statements about her accident, according to Dr. Adegboyega. According to her, a teacher within the school revealed to her that the next day after the incident, the VP instructed some of Ebunoluwa’s classmates to write statements indicating that nobody pushed her when she fell. He allegedly ordered them to write that Ebunoluwa was running when she fell.

    “He allegedly did all that without our knowledge even though he later came to the hospital to beg us not to take legal action against the school. The teacher begged me to keep quiet and leave everything to God. I was mortified. I wondered how the Vice Principal could make minors commit such act,” she said.

     

    ‘Duty of care

    Yemisi Adepoju, the victim’s lawyer, argued that, “Once a student resumes in school, the school owes the student duty of care from the moment he or she steps into its premises till closing hours when he or she departs the school for home. That was what the school (Grace Schools) had sold. The school claimed to install CCTV cameras as a security measure and the school also makes students sign anti-bullying statements.”

    Indeed, the duty of care means schools must do everything reasonably possible to protect their students from foreseeable harm, injury, and death. This duty includes providing a safe environment for students, according to Sulaiman Tella, a lawyer.

    According to him, when a school fails to protect its students from foreseeable harm, the law says it acted negligently. A school’s negligence makes it responsible, or liable, for the injured student’s damages.

     

    The legal doctrine of in loco parentis

    In loco parentis (a Latin term meaning “in place of the parent”) is a legal doctrine that applies to school administrators and teachers. The doctrine means that while a child is at school or away on a school-sponsored, extracurricular activity, the teacher has the responsibility and duties of the student’s parents. While in loco parentis gives teachers latitude in supervising students and student activities, the legal doctrine makes teachers and administrators liable for accidents and injuries students sustain while under their supervision.

    If a child has an accident in the school, in the schoolyard, on the way to school, on the school bus or while on a school trip, the question of whether or not the school or the teachers were negligent may arise. Everything however, depends on the facts of the individual case, argued Tella.

     

    The grim picture

    Ebunoluwa’s case represents a microcosm of the violence malaise afflicting Nigerian secondary schools. Some victims however, do not live to tell their story. For instance, Iyanuoluwa Dahunsi, a 15-year-old SSS 2 pupil of Bishop Philip Academy, Ibadan, Oyo State, was hospitalised after she was reportedly slapped by Funke Fashina, who was then the secretary to the school’s Principal, on January 29, 2015.

    Dahunsi subsequently developed a lingering eye problem, causing her partial blindness. Although Fashina was later arrested and charged to court for the assault, Dahunsi, never recovered from it. Barely six months later, and five days after her 15th birthday, Dahunsi died on July 22, 2015 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). The late teenager was buried in February this year.

    And few people would forget in a hurry the heartrending saga of American elementary school girl, Ava Lynn. Photos of the bruised girl went viral on social media back in 2014 after she was reportedly attacked by a bully on the playground. According to the young girl’s mum, Lacey Harris, on Tuesday, August 26, 2014, she was called to come pick up her daughter at Arlington Elementary School in Pascagoula, Mississippi, because AvaLynn had been injured in an accident. The sight Lacey met when she got to Ava’s school was every parents’ nightmare: her daughter’s face was swollen, cut, and bruised beyond recognition.

    Ava informed her mum, Lacey, that she was assaulted by another student; that she was kicked repeatedly in the face until she fell off of the slide on the school’s playground. But the school informed Lacey that there were no teachers present when the incident occurred, and because of that, no one could prove whether or not another student had harmed Ava. That there had been an accident, no other students were involved, Ava got injured, they gave her medical treatment and that was as much as they could do.

    While the American constitution amply provides for and implements provisions for the protection of the American child, both at home and in school, Nigeria still fights a losing battle to replicate such feat within its social and legal framework. Nonetheless, the Child Rights Act clearly outlaws battery and physical abuse in any form, according to Betty Abah, the Executive Director, Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection.

    Approximately six out of every 10 children in Nigeria experience some form of violence before the age of 18, while half of all children experience physical violence, according to a finding from a 2014 national survey on “Violence Against Children in Nigeria.” Hence eminent scholar of United States’ University of Georgia, Moradeke Aderibigbe Abimbola,  suggested a more proactive and effective anti-bullying law for the country. She said the law should be operationalised to enhance Nigerian schools’ capacity to promptly investigate bullying cases in a timely manner and determine whether bullying has indeed occurred. She suggested a procedure for a teacher or other school employee, student, parent, guardian, or other person who has control or charge of a student, either anonymously or in such person’s name, at such person’s option, to report or otherwise provide information on bullying activity.

    Oftentimes children who are repeatedly bullied and assaulted in school start to wonder if they deserved. The teacher and other administrative staff can counteract this by sitting with the child at lunch to offer counselling. “They may visit the child at home to show support and offer emotional counsel. Any expression of support is good,” argued Olayinka Otun, a child psychologist.

    However, when bullying takes on a more dangerous facade, as it frequently does in high school, bystanders should be encouraged to intervene by speaking up in support of a bullied classmate. For relational aggression – name calling and gossiping – the school authority and bystanders should always take a stand, argued Rachel Oyibo, an educational psychologist and school counsellor.

    “The best form of intervention is teaching kids and enlightening staff to always speak up and stand in defense of the abused particularly in established cases of bullying,” she said.

     

    We will make sure that the press is closed down —Grace Schools’ Vice Principal, Balogun

    At exactly 1:52 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2016, The Nation reporter arrived at the school to see the Vice Principal, P.A. Balogun. About five minutes after his secretary informed him of the reporter’s presence, a very hesitant Balogun received the reporter in his office. He demanded to know The Nation’s mission in the school. No sooner was he briefed than he began to issue warnings to the reporter. He threatened that the school would “close down” any newspaper that published anything against the school.

    He said: “The lawyers are already handling the case. We received a letter from their (Adegboyegas) own lawyer, and our lawyers have responded. I cannot confirm to you whether the matter is in court now or not.”

    When our reporter told the Vice Principal that the lawyer to the Adegboyegas had not filed any suit in court as the aggrieved party, Balogun responded: “I don’t know, but the matter must have been in court.”

    The Vice Principal condemned the allegations raised by the aggrieved family. He said: “All the allegations are wrong. The letter the family wrote to the school was very wrong. That is why the owner of the school said we should not entertain anything on the matter again.”

     

    Playing legal roulette in Grace Schools’ administrative offices

    “If anything is published, we will sue that publishing house for libel,” the VP threatened. Balogun dismissed claims that the school victimised Ebunoluwa. “How is the school victimising the child? Try and ask the family how their child is being victimised. Is it verbally, physical assault, beating? Just how? The parents of the child are medical doctors. If medical doctors are talking like that, what do you expect of a layman on the street? I am highly disappointed in them. Come, let me take you (reporter) to the Principal,” he said.

    En route the Principal’s office, VP Balogun engaged the reporter in the following discussion:

    Balogun: The school has two SANs (Senior Advocates of Nigeria) that are on the board here. We have notified them. They will take it over as well if any paper makes any malicious publication!

    Reporter: We are not making any malicious publication. That is why we are here to get your own side of the story.

    Balogun: In fact, we will make sure that the press is closed down! Honestly!

    At the Principal’s office, Balogun asked the reporter to stay with the secretary while he went inside to discuss with the Principal. Three minutes later, he placed a call to the ‘owner of the school,’ to inform her of the reporter’s presence.

    He said: “I have somebody here that said he is from The Nation newspaper. And he said that the family of Adegboyega made some allegations and that he has come to verify those allegations. I said they can only see our lawyers. I told him that we can’t give him any information here, that it is only our lawyer that he can talk to. I told him that if they publish anything, we will contact the SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) straightaway. They shouldn’t publish anything. I told them that our lawyer is seeing their lawyer. I told him that they cannot get any information from the school. He is here now. I told the Principal and the Principal said I should report to you.

    I just want him to go…I will tell him that we are not ready to give any information here.”

    After making the call, he told the reporter: “I just talked to the owner of the school. She said you have no right to publish anything. And you cannot get any information for now. If there is any need for us to give you information, you can contact our lawyer. We can give you the contact,” he said.

    Promptly, the reporter requested for the contact of the school’s lawyer but the Vice Principal refused to give him the lawyer’s contact. He assumed a hostile posture and ordered the reporter out of the school.

    “Please, you may take your leave! If there is any need to contact our lawyers later, we can book an appointment with you,” he said.

    Thus at exactly 2:15 pm, the reporter took his leave with Balogun marching briskly beside him to ensure that he (reporter) did not stop by to speak to any student or member of staff.

    As he marched the reporter to the gate, the following conversation ensued:

    Reporter: “The parents also alleged that the school management forced her (the victim’s) colleagues to write false statement on how the incident happened. They claimed you coached her colleagues to write that she was running when she fell and that nobody pushed her.”

    Balogun: “Which of her colleagues?”

    Reporter: The victim’s colleagues who were present at the time of the accident.

    Balogun: (Silence)

    Reporter: “So when can we book the appointment with your lawyer?”

    Balogun: “Don’t worry, we will contact our lawyer. When we do so, whatever the lawyer says, we will let you know.”

    Reporter: “We don’t have time, because the story will go to press soon and we need to get the school’s account.”

    Balogun: “You just don’t rush to the press. It is not done anywhere.”

    Reporter: “I was here yesterday (Tuesday) but I was told you had left the premises before I got here.”

    Balogun: “Please, forward a letter to us to book an appointment with our lawyer.

    Reporter: This is the press sir. We don’t need you to contact your lawyer on our behalf. We can always do that. We will save time if you can put a call to your lawyer now.”

    Balogun: “The owner of the school has contacted the lawyer. And I have told you, our lawyers are speaking to their lawyer. Nobody should publish anything.”

    As the reporter drove out of the premises, Balogun was seen discussing with the school security personnel, pointing to the reporter’s car.