•The whys, the wherefores
Henry Umahi and Job Osazuwa
Last week, in a meeting with the chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, Barrister Sa’adatu Bome Ishaya, Governor Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State decried the rampant cases of child rape in the state, stating that over two cases of unlawful carnal knowledge were reported daily. To rub it in, the state coordinator of the Child’s Protection Network (CPN),
Lucy Usen, said: “It appears the men have turned it into a hobby raping minors.”
Similarly, Justice Sybil Nwaka of a Lagos court lamented “that incidents of rape have taken a new astronomical dimension in our society. The rate at which men in our society are prowling around, looking for young underage children to defile, is alarming. Children, especially the girl-child, are no longer safe in the custody of uncles, brothers and even fathers. This is sad.”
These are, certainly, not the best times for the girl child as many are being ravaged by perverts on the prowl. From the fringe of the north to the south, it is the same story. Status, religion and age do not count in the club of cradle-snatchers.
Consider these: Sani, a 50-year-old man, was recently arraigned in court for allegedly raping his neighbour’s three-year-old daughter to death in Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State. A source disclosed that the suspect lured the victim to a nearby uncompleted building and raped her while closing her mouth. And she died.
The other day, six men allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in Funtua, Katsina State. According to the police, the accused persons had “sexual intercourse with her several times.” About two weeks ago, a 22-year-old man, Chukwuebuka, was arrested by the Niger State Police Command for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl. Confessing to the crime, the suspect said: “I knew that she is an underage girl; that was the reason I have not impregnated her. I want her to be of age, so I can marry her. I had sex with her because I wanted to deflower her but it has dawned on me that I was simply infatuated.”
For the Enosegbes, defiling minors is a family tradition or so it seems. Put differently, it’s like father, like son. For allegedly defiling a 10-year-old girl, an Oredo magistrate’s court in Benin, the capital of Edo State, recently ordered the remand of Reuben Enosegbe, 50, and his 16-year-old son, Destiny.
In the case of Taiwo Opasin, 29, an upholstery maker, he was arraigned at an Ebute Meta chief magistrate’s court for unlawful and indecent assault, unlawful sexual intercourse and penetrative sex with a minor. The victim is his own four-year-old daughter. The prosecutor, Inspector Chinalu Uwadione, told the court: “The teacher in the school of the victim noticed that she had been lately withdrawn and quiet. On enquiry, she told the teacher about her father’s act.”
Baba Michael, a 40-year-old commercial bus driver was recently apprehended in Palm Groove area of Lagos for sexually violating a seven-year-old girl repeatedly to the extent that she has completely lost control of her bladder. Now, she urinates uncontrollably on herself. Few weeks ago, Gabriel Olaniyan, 52, was accused of defiling a nine-year-old girl after seducing her with N10 biscuits while returning from school. He, however, told an Ibadan Magistrates’ Court in Iyaganku where he was arraigned that it was a mistake.
About two weeks ago, a 30-year-old banker, Chidi, was accused of drugging and impregnating a 13-year-old orphan in SSS Quarters, Jikwoyi, Abuja. It was gathered that the banker allegedly took advantage of the victim, who was served as a maid to his in-law, a pastor.
Sixty-five years old Okon, a commercial motorcycle rider, was nabbed by the Akwa Ibom State Police Command for allegedly defiling an 11-year-old girl in Uyo, the state capital. Okon did not defile the girl alone. Akan, 27, living in the neighbourhood also slept with the girl. Okon said: “I was drunk, so I don’t know what happened. But I love the girl and I slept with her I don’t know her age.”
Last Friday, a 40-year-old man, Abdullahi Umar, was charged before a Katsina State magistrate’s court for allegedly raping three primary school pupils. It was gathered that Umar, a labourer, had committed a similar offence in April 2015 and that was when he committed the offence for which he is standing trial. Child rape knows no boundary. A 13-year-old boy impregnated his 11-year-old sister and she gave birth to a baby boy in Murcia, southeast Spain in February.
Wrath of the law
However, some states in the country are determined to deal with the situation. They are not deterred, or so it seems. On February 15, Obinna Iziejen, 58, was sentenced by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court to 60 years imprisonment with hard labour for defiling a 12-year-old pupil. It is the first judgement of the court inaugurated on February 1 by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State.
Same month, the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, sentenced Maduabuchi Onwuta, 47, to 25 years imprisonment for defiling a 16-month-old baby. The prosecutor, Mr. Adebayo Haroun, said: “The convict had been a long-time family friend of the complainant’s family. He and the complainant’s uncle were secondary school classmates. He helped the complainant’s mother by subletting a room in his apartment to her when she had accommodation problems.”
Few days ago, a family court sitting in Akure sentenced a man, Praise Akinloye, 35, to three years imprisonment after being convicted of having unlawful sexual intercourse with an 11-year-old girl between February 26 and March 13 this year. He was, however, given an option of N250,000 fine. Another 35-year-old man, Oladapo Akinyodoye, has equally been sentenced to five years imprisonment without an option of fine by a family court in Akure for sexually exploiting a minor since she was in primary six.
In March, a 13-year-old secondary school student was arraigned at an Ikeja chief magistrate’s court for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl. A 70-year-old man, who was recently caught while allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in Upata, Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, almost paid the supreme price. He was chained to a pole and flogged mercilessly by angry youths.
Against the backdrop of high prevalence of child rape in Bayelsa, the state government has established a family court to ensure accelerated hearing of such cases. The state government also inaugurated a committee headed by Mrs. Pere Egbuson to monitor all cases relating to the violation of the girl-child.
In India, President Ram Nath Kovind recently signed an ordinance that allows stringent punishment for sexual violence against children, including the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12. Under the old law, the maximum punishment for child rape was life in prison.
The whys and wherefores
Why do some men prefer to have forceful, unlawful carnal knowledge of minors even in an age where it could be said that sex has been liberalised? A consultant psychiatrist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Peter Ogunnubi, said that for one to fully understand why people engage in rape, it must be noted that sexuality is highly individualised.
Ogunnubi said: “There is what we call disorder of sexual orientation, disorder of sexual desire and many other sexual disorders. They all lie under paraphilia. We need to know what make people get aroused. Some simply have intercourse with inanimate objects (fetishism); some could be homosexuality while others could be minors.
“It is a disorder in psychiatrics when people don’t derive sexual pleasure from people of their age except a minor. Unfortunately, our society is changing to redefine who a minor is in order to accommodate these perpetrators.
“Some people simply believe that, if they have sex with a minor, they can become rich. They believe that children possess a great energy needed in their cultic world. As a myth, they say intercourse with children is a source of enormous power needed for their spiritual and financial successes.
“There are other groups who display some kind of anxiety, shyness and inferiority complex so that they cannot approach their peers. Therefore, they see innocent children as prey that they can unleash their sexual aggression unto.
“Having considered all these factors and many more reasons, we can say that such act is a disorder of perception, thinking, judgment and conclusion.”
On its implications on the society, he said: “A child that is raped is traumatized for a long time, if not forever. The child can grow up to develop mental illness, depression and self-guilt, maybe as a result of improper dressing or not being smart enough.
“When such a child marries, her home might suffer. Anytime her husband approaches her for sexual intercourse, she might be having flashbacks. That could make her to become tense during the intercourse, which would lead to dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse).
“Some victims might develop phobia and would never marry because they cannot let go of the past. Some will not marry because they will continue to see men as cruel beasts. The victims could be addicted to substance because their childhood had been taken away from them. It could be worse if the rape results in the birth of a child; the child becomes a living memory of her ugly past.
“It breeds evil in diverse ways. It can make them to lose their self-esteem, ego and feel inferior in the society and they will not be able to contribute their quota to the development of the society.”
He further said: “Researches have shown that those that are abused are two to three times likely to abuse others when they grow up. Just as females are abused as minors so also males are abused. These are some of the vicious circles.”
A women rights advocate, Mrs. Josephine Nkiruka Ebo, lamented that rape in the country had become endemic.
She blamed the ugly trend on the spate of moral decadence in the country. She also attributed the ill to the erosion of family values and lack of parental care and control for the rising tendencies, and urged parents to rise and check the trend urgently.
“We should not neglect drugs and alcohol addiction. There is a complete collapse of the impartation of moral values too; the erstwhile culture of communal responsibilities is on the wane.”
Ebo, a former president of Inner Wheel Club, Lagos, identified other factors to include flagrant exhibition of indecency, porn videos on the internet, sensual and immoral songs.
She said that the terrible incidence of rape might continue to be on the increase unless the necessary things are done, adding that it was a fight every member of the family and the government must fight.
Ebo said rape was one big crimes that ought to be adequately punished, insisting that a rapist is a criminal and should be treated as such.
In the same vein, the director of Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, Mrs. Itoro Eze-Anaba, disclosed that the centre received sexual assault victims from all ages, but regretted that the number of minors now tops the list. She lamented that most of the perpetrators were either family members or friends.
Eze-Anaba said: “We have been able to pinpoint that people under the age of 18 are the majority of the victims. Another revelation is that rape is not committed by strangers because over 80 per cent of the victims were raped by people they knew. That contradicts the myth that people are raped because of what they wear or the unusual places they visit.”
On why rape was steadily increasing, she decried the high level of impunity among the perpetrators: “Some of our clients revealed to us that the perpetrators boasted that justice would never catch up with them. So, people are getting away with this every day.”
She blamed the low level of prosecution of rapists in court on societal influences, stressing that, in most cases, the family of the victims always withdrew the case at the last minute.
According to her, in some of the cases, there would be pressure on the mother of the victim to withdraw the case, especially when the father was the perpetrator.
A pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Zion Area, Signs and Wonders Parish, Akintola Samuel, said people who exhibit irrational behaviour were suffering from spiritual attacks.
Apart from intense prayers, he maintained that rape and other sexual assaults were not justifiable and cannot be excused from the law of the land.
He advised Nigerians to inculcate the habit of decent lifestyle similar to that of Jesus Christ in their male and female children. He recommended the word of God for all to study and strictly adhere to.
He, however, called on families, religious institutions, civil society groups, government and the international community to speak with one voice against rape in order to achieve a violence-free society for all.
A Lagos-based businessman and chartered accountant, Mr. Cyprian Nwuya, said: “Rape on minors is on the increase today due to failure of the value system. Most people that are involved in this obnoxious act are products of either failed homes or morally bankrupt individuals necessitated by societal influences.
“The implications are that it portrays our country in bad light before the comity of nations. It stigmatises our children with its psychological problems, which may affect them at their adulthood. Government has a duty to continue on mass enlightenment against rape, enact a stiffer penalty against offenders and ensure proper counseling to the victims. Parents should also monitor, control, educate and discipline their girl child against untoward behaviours by their male counterparts. I believe with these efforts, the menace will be curbed.”