•Parents, experts raise concerns, as sexual assault on women, minors escalates
By Tessy Igomu
Obiamaka Orakwue was only 14 when she was raped and murdered at her parent’s home in the Abule Ado area of Lagos. The incident happened on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.
Her crime? She refused sexual advances from a group of hemp-smoking miscreants. They reportedly scaled her parent’s fence, gang-raped her and inflicted fatal injuries on her.
Weeks into the dastardly act, the perpetrators are still walking free, while the police insist the search for her killers is still on. But from all indications, the case might have gone cold, like many others before it.
Ironically, this similar act in some other climes would ultimately be met with the most gruesome punitive measures. Such was the case of 22-year-old Hussein Al-sakit, a Yemeni man, who was publicly executed for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl recently. Another faced a similar fate on July 31, for the rape of a three-year-old. Their execution, according to the authorities, was to act as a deterrent to intending rapists and murderers.
Globally, gory details of perverted sexual escapades emerge, provoking revulsion and horrified sighs. Daily in Nigeria, there has been an increasing number of rape and sexual harassment incidents, including the rape of minors. On the increase is paedophilia, the sexual attraction to children who have not yet reached puberty, especially babies. It has really become a major issue for parents, counsellors and psychologists and millions of Nigerians.
The media has been awash with pathetic cases of minors defiled by mostly trusted persons who chose to abruptly strip the innocent kids of their innocence. This disturbing trend is becoming endemic and, like a wildfire, it is spreading at an alarming rate, unchecked. This trend has been attributed to the inability of public institutions to address the menace by punishing the perpetrators. To many, it is simply an indictment on the nation’s policies and laws.
According to the criminal code, the punishment for rape, as spelt out in Section 358, is life imprisonment, while an attempt to commit rape attracts 14 years. But as it stands, no stiff penalty has been meted out or action taken to bring perpetrators to justice. Punishment for rapists, if any, appears like a mere slap on the wrist, even as victims who survive are made to live with the stigma for life.
An alarming trend
According to experts, statistics on rape may not really be a good reflection of the extent of the crime, as most of the acts go unreported. This is owing to shame, fear of stigmatisation or a culture of silence in these part of the world. Yet the data in the public domain should elicit an immediate call to action.
In 2014 alone, a hospital in Edo State reportedly handled 80 rape cases in seven months. The TAMAR Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Enugu, said it received 472 separate cases of sexual violence since 2014. Out of the report, 89 victims were gang-raped, while seven were not able to remember the number of persons that raped them. Among that number, 354 knew the rapists, while 118 didn’t. But only 37 were charged to court, out of which five were discharged. Seven of the cases are at prosecution stage, with conviction recorded in one case and the perpetrator sentenced to 14 years in prison.
According to the Lagos State Police Command, between 2012 and 2013, about 678 cases was recorded, while a total of 162 reported cases of sexual and physical abuse were recorded as at April 27, 2016.
The office of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation in Lagos State said it treated about 589 cases, ranging from sexual abuse to physical abuse and child labour, in the same year.
Former attorney-general and commissioner for justice in Lagos State, Mr. Adeola Ipaye, said the spate of rape and defilement was alarming, with the trend reaching a crisis stage. He put the figure of reported cases of minors’ rape and defilement in 2012 alone at 427, stressing that many cases remained unreported.
The Office of the Public Defender (OPD), a department under the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, also disclosed in a report that, between January and March, 2012, 39 cases of child abuse were handled by the office while 15 cases of rape and 17 cases of defilement were also treated. Between January and September 2015, the OPD also reported handling about 70 child defilement cases and 406 rape cases, with 1,143 of such cases treated between 2007 and 2015.
A human rights lawyer, Mr. Evans Ufeli, said it was disheartening that, as at 2015, Nigeria had only recorded 18 rape convictions in its legal history.
A trajectory of horror
On July 29, 2017, 28-year-old Suleiman Sabiu of Daddara Village, Kastina State, allegedly raped the 11-year-old daughter of his neighbour. On September 8, 2013, the Katsina State Police Command arrested two men for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl to death in Sandamu town of the state. According to reports, the deceased was allegedly lured into the act while on an errand.
A particularly disturbing instance was that of a police corporal, Anthony Onoja, who allegedly raped a two-year-old in the Kabayi area of Nasarawa State. In November last year, another two-year-old was reportedly raped by a 34-year-old driver, Oyewale Ojo. He was arrested by the Oyo State Police Command for defiling the toddler, the daughter of his neighbours.
On August 14, 2012, Alabi Bakare, a 45-year-old commercial cyclist and husband of two wives was sentenced to five years imprisonment by an Ikeja magistrate’s court for molesting three minors. According to reports, he was caught committing the act by a neighbour and pleaded guilty to having carnal knowledge of the minors whose age ranged between three and six in the Alapere area of Ketu, Lagos.
Not long ago, a 33-year-old man, Nkemakonam Nwoke, was apprehended in Enugu for defiling eight female minors aged between three and six years. He was exposed after one of the girls reported to her mother that the man was doing some ‘bad’ things with them.
In October, 2012, the Ogun State Police Command arrested a 62-year-old man, Alabi Ibraheem, for the alleged serial defilement of his 10-year-old stepdaughter. The violated girl, a primary six pupil, said she had lost count of the times her stepfather raped her.
According to the girl: “Daddy always comes to me when mummy is not at home, and warned me not to tell anybody so that I won’t die.”
Sylvester Ehijere, 47, was arrested in March 2013 for the serial rape of his seven-year-old daughter and one-month-old granddaughter. He was exposed by his wife who noticed bloodstains on the toddler’s thigh. The girl later told the police that her father had raped her several times.
In that same year, seven men were arrested for allegedly raping and impregnating a 12-year-old girl in Malumfashi Local Government Area of Kastina State. There was also the case of a 44-year-old man from Ini Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State who allegedly defiled his daughter and actually confessed to have had sexual intercourse with her several times.
Another man in Enugu also reported to have raped three of his children aged five, seven and nine, while another 10-year-old girl cried out after frequent defilement by her father for a period of 18 months in Lagos.
Mostly endangered
The global prevalence of rape and child defilement has been estimated at 19.7 per cent for females and 7.9 for males, according to a 2009 study published in Clinical Psychology Review, a health publication that that examined 65 studies from 22 countries. The data also attributed the highest prevalence rate of child sexual abuse geographically to Africa.
Further research has showed that the girl child is mostly affected, as men of their fathers’ age and, in many cases, their biological fathers, defile them and inflict lifelong physical and emotional pain on them.
According to a research conducted by a group of lecturers from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, under the aegis of Women on Molestation, Intimate Harassment and Intimate Exploitation, 80 per cent of girls, before attaining age 18, experience intimate violence and abuse while 31 per cent of them experience intimate violence and abuse before age 13.
The Ondo State-based group, which conducted the study in Oyo and Osun states, noted that 80 per cent of 3,118 students interviewed had experienced intimate violence and abuse, adding that it was alarming that molestation and other forms of intimate violence against girls in the study were perpetrated in the homes of the victims.
The principal researchers, Dr. Olutoyin Mejiuni and Prof. Oluyemisi Obilade, said some men capitalised on the trust reposed in them to molest their victims, as investigations revealed that the assailants were mainly their relatives, a few teachers and religious leaders, family friends and neighbours, among others.
“Respondents suffered shame, fear, aches and pains, cuts and injuries, especially to their womanliness, bleeding, loss of virginity, pregnancy and ostracism as a result of intimate violence and abuse,” they noted.
Speaking on the psychological makeup of paedophiles or rapists, Dr. Charles Umeh, a clinical psychologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), noted that no major cause had been identified but asserted that experts were beginning to focus more on psychosocial factors. Parts of the factors, he said, postulate that people with a history of sexual abuse tend to grow up becoming perpetrators. He explained that another factor was arrested development, where adults tend to use children for sexual gratification. He noted that some others see sexuality as a means of dominance, and because they can’t really reach out to the opposite sex, they subdue minors to prove their masculinity. In his view, most of the perpetrators work as teachers, hostel masters, and pastors, with many of them involved in sporting activities.
What the law says
The Criminal Code, Cap ‘C38”, Sections 357 and 358, says that a person has committed rape when he has sexual relations with a woman against her consent, while putting her in fear of death or harm, misrepresenting as the husband of the woman or having carnal knowledge of a girl with unsound mind or with a girl under 14.
Despite the stance of the law, Arinze Onu, a sociologist, maintained that the voice against rape is criminally silent, the law against rape is ineffective, the institutions to render support are sick and culpable of the act, while leaders are helpless. He noted that the law against molestation and intimate abuse against children is not deterrent enough, which explains why the number of cases keeps increasing daily.
Onu decried what he described as the complacency of society toward the act and the nature of the act itself, which most victims perceive could stigmatise and tarnish their image.
“There is what I would also describe as a culture of silence on rape. Some victims would rather keep quiet and move on, or those that know about the incident and the culprit involved would choose to turn a blind eye. Unfortunately, without evidence and witnesses, a rape case might end up dead on arrival,” Onu said.
Mrs. Funmi Falana, a Lagos-based lawyer and public commentator, said the Nigerian Constitution is biased against women.
She said, “By virtue of Section 353 of the Criminal Code Act, any person who unlawfully and indecently assaults any male person is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years. But Section 360 of the Act regards indecent assault on a woman a misdemeanour, which attracts a punishment of two years imprisonment.
“The serious criminal offence of having carnal knowledge of a girl being of or above 13 years and under 16 years of age or of a woman or girl who is an idiot or imbecile is classified as a misdemeanour, which is punishable by two years imprisonment under Section 221 of the Criminal Code. Even then, the accused may be discharged and acquitted if he can prove that he believed on reasonable grounds that the girl was of or above the age of 16 years.”
For the Convener, Live Abundantly Initiative, Dr. Ama Onyerinma, prompt professional response from the police should not be compromised, irrespective of who is involved. She stressed that the culture of silence has made rape cases prevalent, adding that lack of confidence in the criminal justice system has also made victims to recline into their shells.
Another anti-rape campaigner, Uduak Bello lamented the lack of empathy shown towards rape victims by family and friends. Some are even mocked for bringing shame and dishonour to the family, she said. She also blamed the growing trend on lack of proper investigation, weak legal sanctions and lack of profiling of sex offenders.
“The system, I believe, should ensure to hand out maximum punishment to sex offenders after the police should have investigated and recommended for prosecution the culprit. In most cases, it’s the word of the perpetrator against that of the victim. The judiciary should be the first to stand in defence of rape victims,” she said.
Consequences of rape
Rape is such a life-altering act that in a minute, the perpetrator can negatively change the course of life of a victim forever.
Wuraola Hakeem, a counsellor, informed that a victim of child sexual abuse, while seeking help from depression, confessed that her self-esteem was shattered beyond repair because of the incident.
She disclosed that rape victims live with the trauma for life, noting that with time, some are even diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“They tend to ostracize themselves from people, endure or stay in abusive relationships or suffer from infections or diseases contracted from the act itself. It’s sad that the society has become an enabler of the crime as victims tend to be blamed for either inciting rape or creating an environment for it to happen. It’s time we all fought for a violence-free society for all,” she stated.