As you approach her, she
averts eye contact, preferring to look at the ground; call her name, she nods
her head without saying a word. She is equally not forthcoming when you try to
engage her in a conversation. Yet this is a girl who was said to be outgoing
and playful before her most recent traumatic experience.
But after much prodding, 13-year-old
Sadia (not real name) and a primary five pupil of a private school in Jos, the
Plateau State capital, was able to tell her story, albeit amidst tears.
Residents in shock
A middle aged man was caught
defiling her at about 7am on the fateful day of October 12, 2014. It was an
ugly incident that has since turned her life upside down and left residents in
the neighbourhood reeling in shock.
She said it was not the first time
the man raped her, adding that she had before this time allowed him to have his
way because he gave her money to meet her urgent need, which is food. So their
being caught in the act, booed and sniggered at by a curious crowd of
residents, was a “shame too much” for her bear.
Narrating her ordeal, she said:
“Papa Emeka always sent me to buy things for him and he would leave the change
with me. One day, he asked me if I had started seeing my menses and I asked him
what that means, but he said I should forget it. Another day, he called and
told me to enter his room and clean it. As I entered, he came in, pushed me on
the bed and held my mouth. I was scared but he was pleading with me not to
shout that he wants me to start seeing my menses.
“As he was trying to rape me, I bit
him and he left me alone. Because he locked the door, I could not go out, so he
started begging me not to tell anyone and he gave me N500. I did not tell
anyone because I was confused and I was scared of telling my stepmother because
she would beat me.
“After many weeks, he asked me to
buy a bottle of soft drink for him. When I went in to give him the drink, he
poured it inside a cup for me. After drinking it, I started feeling tired and
had to lie on the floor. I did not know what happened thereafter, but when I
woke up, he said I should go before my stepmother would start looking for me. I
was feeling pains and did not know anything but I could not tell anyone.”
Sadia added: “About five days later,
he called me, put me on his leg and started touching my body. He asked me if I
told anyone that I slept in his house, and I said no. Though I was scared, I
could not tell anyone because immediately he finished, he gave me N500 and said
I should go home and have my bath. Since I did not eat, I used the money and
bought food at the roadside.”
However, luck ran out on the randy
man on the third day (October 12, 2014) when he called the girl at about 6.30am
not knowing that the stepmother was yet to leave the house and suspicious
neighbours took note when the girl entered his apartment.
While the stepmother was looking for
the girl, a neighbour knocked at the randy man’s door, opened it and caught him
in the act. She drew the attention of others but before the culprit could be
apprehended, he escaped through the back door and the poor girl had to face the
shame of neighbours openly reprimanding her.
Ever since the incident, she keeps
to herself, plays with no one and endures the trauma of daily scolding from her
stepmother. She confessed she felt like dying as she knows people are yet to
forget the incident and are talking behind her back.
Long list of girls raped,
traumatised
But unknown to Sadia, she is one in a long list of young
girls who have been raped in recent time. On September 13, 2014, in Mangu Local
Government Area, another minor, eight years old Nankling (not real name), a
primary two pupil, was defiled by a teenager at Mangu Halle. On the same day, a
10- year-old girl in Mararaba Pushit was raped by a married man who has two
children. At Jakatai, a nine- year-old was raped on September 22, 2014 by a
38-year-old father of four.
Narrating what happened, the mother
of the eight-year-old victim, Mama Nankling, said she is yet to overcome the
trauma of having her daughter being defiled in that manner. She added she never
imagined the neighbour could be so wicked to do such to her baby.
According to her; “He always came
around here to play with my children. One day, he took this girl to one
uncompleted building in our area and started sleeping with her. I did not see
my daughter around so I thought she was playing in the neighbourhood. She later
came home, limping and crying. When I asked what happened, she told me what
Aminu did to her. When we got to his house and he confirmed he did it, we got
him arrested. He is there with the Police and they had charged him to court. No
matter the result of the judgement, I will still be sad that this happened to
me and I feel guilty that I did not do enough to keep my child from harm’s
way.”
At Kwata, Zawan in Jos South Local
Government Area, a 17-year-old girl was on July 7, 2014 raped by a neighbour
who also threatened to kill her if she told anyone. There was also another case
at Barkin Ladi where a security personnel attached to the Special Task Force,
STF, raped a four-year-old girl in the neighbourhood. Though the randy Mobile
policeman had been dismissed by the Police authorities and charged to court,
the parents of the girl still lament the situation.
Relationship with victims
Within three weeks in November 2014,
three different incidences occurred at Corner Shagari area of Jos North. First,
a teenage girl was raped by six men and then at Tudun Wada in the same local
government, a three-year old was raped by a middle aged man. At Bukuru in Jos
South, a five year old girl was raped by a man in his 30s.
The case is not different in other
areas like Kanam and Qua’an Pan where investigations reveal that rape of minor
is on the increase across the religious divides in the local government areas.
It was also established that most of the assailants had some form of
relationship with the victims and this, most times, hinders the cases from
being reported.
Curiously, there have also been
cases involving fathers and their biological daughters, stepfathers with
stepdaughters, uncles with nieces, ‘trusted’ neighbours taking advantage of
innocent girls and some security personnel philandering with young girls in
their areas of operations as well as male teachers and their female students.
Beside the accompanying trauma, some
of the victims have also in the process been infected with sexually transmitted
diseases; some are left with unwanted pregnancies which result in their
dropping out of schools.
Many parents and guardians attribute
the rise to poverty, ignorance, influence of drugs, rituals, inadequate
punishments for assailants, drunkenness and lack of care, including excessive
intake of traditional medicine. Some believe that if you have HIV and you sleep
with a girl who is a virgin, you will be cured.
Authorities confirmed that though
many of the cases are not always reported due to several reasons, an average of
10 cases had been recorded in a month in the past six months. They assured that
effort has been intensified to sensitize the people to know that rape of
whatever kind is a crime against the state and must be reported.
Why rate of rape of minors
is high, alarming
The failure of the state in getting
justice for the victims usually embolden prospective rapists to engage in this
act knowing the chances of paying for their crime is minimal.
It is against this backdrop that
many have come to raise alarm and condemn the rise in rape incidents in the
State. Among them are the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social
Development, Mrs. Sarah Yusuf, the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO,
DSP Emmanuel Abuh, the Plateau State Vice-Chairman of Christian Association of
Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Ibrahim Chindo, the Chief Imam of Jos Central Mosque, Sheikh
Balarabe Daud, a gynaecologist with the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH,
Prof. Olufunmilayo Para-Mallam who had researched extensively on gender-based
violence as well as the Long Kwa, Miskagam Ignatius Didel. They have also
agreed that it was high time that perpetrators were severely punished for the
crime.
Mrs. Yusuf told us that “The rape of
minor is really high. The rate of reported cases of rape of minors in the State
in recent months is alarming. We never really had this problem in the past;
this is a new phenomenon and it is becoming a problem for us. We have received
so many cases of rape of minor in the State.”
Blame lawyers, judges–Police
But in response to this,
a policeman who did not want to be named said: “Let me tell you the truth,
Police is frustrated with the issue of rape because people don’t even like to
report it; when they do, a lawyer will come and say this and that. The lawyers
will defend obvious suspected rapists and through superior arguments the judge
will set them free.
“The judiciary should assist when
such cases are charged to court; they should do what is expected and leave the
rapists behind bars. Apart from that, parents of the children will tell us to
drop the case even when a rape case is established.”
Rape, sin against God; deserves
death penalty–Religious leaders
Speaking on the issue, the State
Vice-Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Ibrahim Chindo
said: “To the best of my knowledge, such crime has not been reported to us.
Rape is sin against God and a crime against humanity. Anyone caught in the act
should be prosecuted and no sane person should condone that.”
Similarly, the Chief Imam of Jos
Central Mosque, Sheikh Balarabe Daud said rape is a very serious crime in
Islam, which could attract death penalty if confirmed that such occurred. He
warned parents to be on the watch to prevent their children from falling victim
to rapists.
For Para-Mallam, a Professor of
Gender and Development Studies and the Coordinator of Christian Women for
Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society, CWEENS: “From what we in CWEENS
have observed, I must confess there is a shocking increase in the incidents and
prevalence in violence against women and girls, most specifically against
minors. In time past, many people used to say that women get raped because of
the way they dress, they get raped because they go out late at night. Too
often, people blame the victims for being raped.
“If a woman claims to be raped, they
will ask her what she did. What were you wearing? But now, it is increasingly
coming to the fore that little girls, girl children as young as 10 months old,
11 months old, 15 months old, two years, three years, four years are being
raped.
“I tell you that one of the problems
contributing to this is the high level of societal tolerance for violence
against girls and women in general.
“Not only is there a high level of
societal tolerance, there is also a situation whereby when girls and women experience
rape, there is no adequate system in place to give them redress; so there is a
very serious level of impunity where men know that they can do it and get away
with it. There is a kind of nonchalant attitude by the society.
Raped by her father, disowned
by family
“For instance, one of the ladies
that came to us was raped by her own biological father not once but twice. When
she dared to voice out what her father had done to her, her parents and the
entire family turned against her and she became an outcast in her own home; in
her family.
“She had to leave and so suffered a
double jeopardy. Not only had she been abused and violated, she faced the
injustice of victimization because she dared speak out. People are forced to
keep silent.
“Another situation that came to our
attention, all of them happening in Plateau State, a family living in a
compound setting with another family and both of them are relatively poor,
especially the family of the victim. Unknown to them, one of the men in the
compound had called their daughter, a minor of 14 years, and began to entice
her with money and sleeping with her.
“This girl got pregnant, he took her
and aborted the pregnancy, the parents got to know but he begged and gave them
some money, and it ended as a hush-hush affair. The second time it happened,
the girl got pregnant again, he took her for abortion and it developed serious
complications. An NGO was called in and they came to us to look into the
situation they were dealing with.
“What we have found out and like the
Commissioner of Police had told us, there is a large level of complicity where
families themselves fail to protect the girl-child and when the girl-child is
even abused, they fail to ensure that she is given trauma care, counseling,
justice through the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators. In many
instances, these girls have to continue living with the perpetrators either in
the same home or same compound.
“The tragedy of the situation is
that where girls are supposed to be the safest, that is where they are being
violated: by stepfathers, fathers, brothers, uncles, and cousins, even friends
of families. It is a very serious problem.”
Conflict as a factor
Giving reasons for the increase, she
added: “There are several reasons like violence in society. One of the
after-effects of a society that has experienced conflict is the increase in
violence against women and girls. During conflict situations, women often
experience rape and other forms of sexual violence such as forced prostitution,
sexual slavery, and forced marriage as we see with the Chibok girl, etc.
“During conflict situations, girls
face this problem from security agents posted to communities to keep the peace
and they end up stealing the peace of women and girls in this very insidious
and horrible way. We also have an increasing culture of violence. Though I am
not justifying rape but very often men are not taught how to handle anger and
frustration so they turn it on the vulnerable and the weak.
“Another explanation is that in a
patriarchal culture such as ours, too often, the rights of women are trampled
upon; women and girls are not protected at all. In fact, they are totally
denied. Men are brought up to feel that ‘I am the boss, I am in charge, I can
command and control and have whatever woman I desire’. In such culture, women
are often seen as sex objects; not only when a girl or woman is dressed
half-naked, but women are objectified and seen as good for her reproductive
capacity and sexual allure.
“Overwhelmingly, our culture is very
derogatory and condescending, very discriminatory, very belittling of girls and
women. This culture of looking down on the woman and objectifying her as a sex
object contributes.
The poverty question
“Another reason which is so obvious
is poverty. We have seen some cases where parents are induced to keep quiet
because they were given financial incentives. They were told, ‘Okay, I am going
to give you this money, don’t tell of what I did’ and many of the parents being
poor will say, well let us take this money and see how we can help our
daughter. A lot of girls also make themselves vulnerable for men to exploit
them because they are looking for money. I remember a girl who I heard went to
military checkpoint and told a soldier, please just do anything you want with
me but just give me lunch.
“Recently, there was a little girl
who was hawking groundnut in Abuja and a man came down from a Keke (tricycle) and said, “Come,
my oga is calling you, he wants you to buy groundnut”. Initially she did not
want to go but the man asked, “Don’t you want to sell your groundnut and she
went”. Both the man and his partner raped the girl. She went to the police
station but a policeman told her she was a fool to have followed the man. The
victim ended up getting blamed and nobody asked who these men were and how to
arrest and prosecute them.
Difficult prosecuting rapists
“The laws do not protect the woman,
when we started investigating rape; we were shocked to discover how difficult
it is to prosecute rape. According to law, a woman or girl or whoever is raped
has to have a medical report from a public not even a private hospital; she has
to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that she was actually raped. For so many
people who have been raped, the last thing on their mind is taking themselves
to hospital; they just go and hide in shame; there are no awareness, people
don’t even know that they have to go and get tested immediately, it is really
sad.”
An Investigative Officer of Child’s
Rights Brigade International, CRiB, Dahot Yusuf said counseling of victims
could reduce the trauma but many parents of minor always frustrate
investigations processes because they don’t want to face what they call shame.
According to him; “Most times,
evidences are not just enough to prosecute suspects because of lack of proper
awareness. Parents should know that when something like that happens, they are
not to bathe the children but get to a General Hospital for report and
verification before the evidences are lost.
“Another issue that hinders
prosecution of suspects is when the suspect and victim are from different
religion and culture. Recently in Kantoma, Mangu local government area, because
of the differences in languages and culture, relatives and friends of the
suspect ganged up against the victim who is from a different tribe.
“Medical personnel should also be
sensitized because they sometimes feel reluctant giving out the report because
they don’t want to appear in court to testify. Men mostly don’t sympathize with
victims of rape but either blame them or become indifferent.”
Meanwhile the Acting Chairman of
Qua’an Pan Traditional Council who is also the Long Kwa, Miskagam Ignatius
Didel told VF: “In Qua’an Pan, the case is not wide spread, but we only record
it around Namu area because of the Fulani who migrated from Nassarawa State to
stay with us there. They seize things belonging to farmers, kill them and rape
girls and women. We are trying to arrest the situation but such incident is not
commonly heard among the natives.”
Dr. Patrick Daru of the Jos
University Teaching Hospital, JUTH stated: “The rising cases of violation of
children by adults, called paedophilia, deserve strong measures to address as a
significant number of patients (minors) have been examined in the hospital and
confirmed to have been raped but the recent strike action by health workers
might have discouraged people from coming to the hospital as no recent case is
registered in large number.”
Enlightenment, parental care to the
rescue
To stem the menace, the state
Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development said it has embarked on
enlightenment campaigns to alert parents and their children to this crime and
how to avoid being violated. Yusuf said: “Parents also have to spend more time
with their children, be closer to them and teach them about sex education early
in life and also have interest in who their children’s friends are and as well
get their children positively engaged to avoid idleness.”
Furthermore, Prof. Para-Mallam
advocated that: “Adequate laws should be put in place to protect girls.
Doctors, teachers, religious leaders, parents should be compelled by law to
speak out but whoever covers up rape, especially of minor, should be punished
by law.
“Police should be trained not to
re-victimize the victims and since Plateau State has domesticated the Child
Rights Law, it should be applied where appropriate to protect girl children and
the pride of womanhood.”
VANGUARD
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