By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)
Recently,
cases of adults defiling minors have been on the increase. Female children
between the ages of one and 10 years have suddenly become endangered species.
They keep falling victims of these depraved rapists. To make matters worse, men
in their 40’s and 50’s are actively involved in this evil act.
In the
last five months, cases of child rape have become rampant. Even the National
Assembly had taken the matter more seriously, although, the lawmakers are
trying to take a holistic look at rape generally and find a lasting solution to
it. Instances of few cases within the last five months will suffice.
On
Tuesday, July 16, a two-year-old baby, Favour Okoye, a pupil of the Salvation
Nursery/Primary School, Shibiri, Ajamgbadi in Ojo Local Government Area of
Lagos State was reportedly raped by an unknown adult in her school. According to
the baby’s mother, Mrs Okoye, “On Tuesday July 16, when their school driver
dropped her around 4pm, I discovered she was feeling dizzy and sleepy; a
condition, which was unusual because each time she came back from school, she
would always play before she slept but on this occasion, she came home feeling
sleepy. She was saying, ‘mummy see’ but I couldn’t make any
meaning out of it. I simply dismissed her as a talkative; the driver even
smiled. As I put her on my shoulder, she slept off. When I was laying her to
sleep, she opened her legs and I saw blood in her private part and I rushed out
but it was too late as the driver had zoomed off.”
On
Friday, September 27, it was reported that a 29-year-old pastor of a white
garment church in Sagamu area of Ogun State, simply identified as Eriwale, was
arrested for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl. Eriwale was alleged to have
raped the innocent girl inside his room at N08, Aiyepe Road, Sagamu, in the
same compound where the victim’s father lives.
On August
2, a barber simply identified as Olateju, residing at Yemoja area of Ido-Osun
in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State allegedly attempted to rape a
four-year-old girl. It was alleged that Olateju would have defiled the girl
inside his barbing salon but for the prompt intervention of one Gbolahan, who
caught him pants down and reported the matter to the police. Olateju was said
to have undressed the little girl and attempted to forcefully insert his
manhood before Gbolahan emerged. He was also said to have escaped from the
scene as neighbours attempted to arrest him.
On Monday
August 19, a 10-year-old girl, Felicia from Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area
of Ebonyi State was allegedly raped by one Okechukwu. The victim was raped when
she was returning from a Christian wake at Urobo Umunaga village in Uburu
Community. The suspect was said to have pretended to be a Good Samaritan and
led her victim to his house where he committed the crime.
On
Sunday, August 6, a 57-year-old stepfather, simply identified as Mr David, was
arrested at Igede-Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti
State for allegedly defiling his five-year-old step daughter. The State Police Public
Relations Officer disclosed that the suspect was arrested on August 6. The
victim, her mother and the suspect were living together at Odori Street,
Igede-Ekiti when the incident happened. Medical report confirmed that the
little girl had lost her virginity to the sexual assault on her.
The
suspect denied committing the illicit act but admitted he inserted his finger
into the victim’s virgina in an attempt to remove a dirt when the mother was
away to fetch water.
In
October, a nine-year-old girl reportedly died from injuries sustained during
alleged consistent rape by a 14-year-old boy. According to the report,
investigation revealed that the deceased was raped over five times by a
14-year-old student, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
The deceased
father, Simeon Jigo, was said to have alleged that the suspect was the son of
the proprietor of the school his daughter attended. He said his daughter opened
up about the rape when she started having medical problems. The 77-year-old man
said his daughter died on October 3, 2013. He said, “Up until my daughter’s
death, she was a pupil of that School and she was in primary three. One day,
she came home and started complaining of pains around her vagina, stomach area.
We rushed her to Ikorodu General Hospital. A doctor checked her and after conducting some
tests on her, told us she had sustained medical complications due to forced
sexual intercourse. Alarmed by the revelation, I had a private discussion with
my daughter, during which she told me it was her school proprietor’s son, who
had been raping her. The boy had threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone
about it.”
On
September 1, a 23-year-old generating set repairer, one Vincent, allegedly bit
off the right nipple of a nine-year-old girl in an attempt to rape her. He was
alleged to have invited the minor to his shop on her way to plait her hair and
covered her mouth before committing the crime. The girl’s mother was said to
have discovered the injuries on her baby’s breast when she wanted to bathe her.
The girl was said to have opened up and narrated her ordeal to her mother when
she noticed the wound around her breast.
A
cross-section of Nigerians who spoke on the matter expressed concern over the
growing rate of child rape in our society, positing that the girl child had
suddenly become endangered specie.
The President and Founder of SelfWorth Organisation
for Women Development, Mrs Chinyere Anokwuru
described the people involved in the criminal act as having both spiritual and
psychological problems and urgently need psychiatric help. “It has been
breaking my heart. It is everywhere. I wonder what is going on because I know
that kids of that age don’t dress indecently. So, it is a psychological thing;
they are paedophiles. They need help; they need to be put in the psychiatric
homes. I don’t know why it is becoming a norm now. It is a spiritual thing,”
she said.
She also
stated that some people are involved in such evil just to become rich. “Some of
them are told to sleep with kids of less than three years in order to become
rich, and they go about looking for these innocent little babies to sleep with.
For some of them, it is psychological problem but whatever the problem is, they
need both spiritual and medical help. And such men should be behind bars for
the rest of their lives; they are not fit to walk the street,” she posited.
She
advised mothers to be more observant with their female kids. “Don’t allow your
children to sit on their uncles laps. It is very wrong. Some mothers will sit
at home and when the uncles walk into the home, the child starts crying and
they don’t see anything wrong in that. It is a signal that something is wrong.
That uncle has been abusing the child; he has been fondling her breast and all
that, and that’s why she cries whenever the uncle comes around. These mothers just overlook these things; we
need to be very conscious of things around us,” she said.
She also
said mothers should be careful with whom they leave their female children. “Mothers
should be very careful. You don’t leave your kids with just any uncle in the
house. As you are leaving for work, look for a very good day care centre to
keep your baby,” she advised.
When
reminded that some of the crimes were reported to have occurred in Day Care Centres,
she said: “Day Care Centres also need to beef up their security. You need more
female care givers at day care centres and few men. I know that security men in
day care centres are also involved in this act, but operators of these centres
should know who they are employing. They should do a thorough research on
whoever they are employing,” she warned.
For the
Executive Director, Tehila Women and Empowerment Foundation (TWYEF), Mrs
Stephany Nwanma, those who are involved in such evil act are demonic. She also
put the blame squarely at the doorstep of mothers, most of whom she blamed for
abandoning their parental duties in pursuit of money and career. “It sounds so
absurd. It still goes back to poor parenting. When a mother guards a child
jealously; always with a child at that age, there is a limitation to such
things happening,” she stated.
She also
blamed the rising cases of child rape to proliferation of crèches, which most
times are managed by people who are not professionally trained to handle such
children. “I remember those good old days when our mothers were always with us.
It took them like two, three or even four years to wean their babies. In those days,
there was nothing like crèche. In those days, parents didn’t leave their kids
of that age with people like the house helps, the security men or the drivers,”
she said.
She
however attributed the scourge to a combination of idleness, psychological and
spiritual problems among others.
Also commenting on the
scourge, a Clinical Psychologist at the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Dr Leonard Okonkwo revealed that those adults who
rape minors are sick. “Any adult who will rise to go after a small child and
rape her is sick; it is an abnormal behaviour. So, I will say that such a
person is not mentally sound; he has a psychological problem,” he said.
On why the menace is on
the increase, he disagreed with the impression, arguing, “It looks like there
is an increase but it is just the awareness that has increased. People have
been raping children; it has always been there but now, you find out that there
is more awareness on it and more people are getting bolder to report it.”
Looking at factors that
could lead an adult male to rape a female child, he said: “When somebody is
mentally ill, stress of life can worsen his case. Maybe the stress that people
go through has actually increased the intensity of already fragile condition of
those who are mentally ill. Paedophilia is an abnormal behaviour and an
abnormal behaviour is also known as mental illness.”
He also attributed it
to what he called fixation and regression. Explaining further, he said: “It
could also be as a result of what we call fixation and regression. That is to
say that some people are fixated at certain period in their psychosexual
development. This simply means that people pass through some normal stages in
their psychosexual stages starting from the oral stage, anal stage to the
phallic stage. In any of these stages, if an individual has had too much
indulgence, he could be fixated at that stage. Then later in life, he may find
himself regressing to that stage.”
He gave an instance of
fixation and regression, when he said: “An adult who was raped as a child is
more likely to be involved in such an act. Some stories have shown that people who
have been raped also become rapists, though not all, but just that we have more
of such people who have done it than in the normal population. So, maybe that
in itself predisposes them to doing the same thing. So, fixation and regression
at an earlier stage in life can predispose one to want to have sex with minors.”
He also identified
upsurge of pornography as one of the causes. “Another thing is the upsurge of
pornography. Today, pornography is within the reach of almost everybody.
Before, it was difficult to come by. You had special places where you could get
them and such places were not many. Pornography was limited to magazines but
now, in addition to magazines, we have videos and other avenues through which pornographic
materials are made available. And it is on record that the most visited sites in
the Internet are pornographic sites. Everybody has access to it and some of
these people who indulge in it have so made it look like it is normal.
Offenders have become brainwashed to believe that there is nothing wrong with
that because when they see it in pornography, it appears as if the young girl
that is being slept with is enjoying it. They become deluded to think that any
child you want to do it with will equally enjoy it; that has also contributed
to the problem,” he explained.
He also revealed that
genetic inheritance also contributes to some extent. He said: “Another issue
that could be responsible for this scourge is the genetic factor. You know that
there are some genetic compositions that predispose people to be defiant and
anti-social to the constituted authority. People who tend to have such genetic
inheritance might also be predisposed to rape.”
Dr Okonkwo recommends
that apart from the conventional punishment as stipulated by law, offenders
should undergo medical treatment. “In addition to legal punishment, they should
undergo some medical examinations and treatment because they are sick,” he
submitted.
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