Rampant Abuse of the Innocent
According to recent statistics from Child Protection Network, well over 200 children were sexually and physically abused in Lagos State from January to July this year. Rebecca Ejifoma reports that despite measures put on ground, these horrific abuses cont
Ordinarily, the innocence of children is something that should be sacred and protected at all costs, but daily and multiple reports of child abuse have put paid to that innocence. According to recent statistics from Child Protection Network (CPN), well over 200 children were abused in the state sexually and physically from January to July this year.
Each day, the mainstream newspapers and the social media are inundated with tales of sexual abuse against children. Although these vices have been on the increase, nothing seems to underscore their frightening dimension than the recent revelation by the Lagos State Government that the state recorded over 3,089 cases of sexual and domestic abuse in a little over eight months. As alarming as the figure is, the reality is that it only accounts for the reported cases. A lot more remain unreported.
The figure by CPN was not far off the mark by that of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, who during the recent commemoration of this year’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month, themed, “Securing the Home against Violence: Everyone’s Responsibility", said from January till August this year alone, the team handled 245 child abuse cases.
Although the increase in such sexual abuse of minors might not be unconnected to moral decadence in the society, the bulk however stops at the table of their parents, whom the responsibility of protecting their innocence was entrusted to at conception and birth. In this age and time when many parents barely have time for their children, they tend to entrust them with their relatives, neighbours or hired nannies without proper checks. In most cases, the abusers are often those trusted family members, relatives or friends. As ironic as it may seem, most it these parents keep their money and treasures in safe houses and banks, yet cannot protect their kid's innocence.
Incidence In spite of the life imprisonment sentence for defiling of minors, more heinous cases are recorded daily. One of such occurred on July 12, this year, when a 13 year-old girl (names withheld) suffered brutal sexual violence from 26- years- old Chibuzor Emealo, who kidnapped and brutally defiled her from 12am till dawn at the Orile Iganmu area of Lagos. While the case is currently in court, Emealo, also known as Alomo, was arrested after the little girl came home the next morning bleeding profusely from her bruised privates. The perpetrator was immediately arrested at his residence at 3 Omoniyi Street Orile- Iganmu.
Another serial rapist and paedophile, Michael Chukwuemeka Chukem, defiled his four nieces (names withheld) and a neighbour’s daughter at Ikorodu and Oshodi areas of Lagos in May this year. He was accused of defiling and continuously having carnal knowledge of his brother’s daughter aged 11; his brother- in- law's three daughters ( aged 10, six and four), alongside a neighbour’s five- year- old daughter.
Sadly, one Mrs. Yetunde was arrested in Ifako area of the state for using minors as home-based prostitutes and renting then out to other teenage boys to defile them for pay. Following swiftly is the case of a printer, Sulaimon Adigun, 30, who had serially defiled a 10-year-old girl (name withheld) for 13 months at the Somolu area of the state. Adigun was arrested in February for the alleged crime and is till date in Kirikiri Prison. Adigun was said to have had carnal knowledge of the JSS1 student from 2017 to February 2018 when he was arrested.
Yet again, the Onipanu Police of Lagos arrested one Felix Irobuta Idehen, 54, for allegedly defiling an 11 year-old-girl (names withheld) from 2016 to August 24 this year in the same Somolu area of Lagos. Idehen, who resides at 8, Imagbon street Fadeyi, was a transporter known as ‘ Alaye’ before he was arrested for the heinous crime.
CPN, also rescued a 14- year- old teenage girl ( names withheld) from her elder sister’s husband, Mr. David Edward, who raped her daily and inflicted injuries on her for exposing him. THISDAY gathered that Edward, 40, subjected the survivor, a primary five pupil, to sexual abuse daily at their residence at 17 Folarin Street, Empire Surulere, Lagos.
Right on the heels of the rescue, an Ikeja Chief Magistrate Court remanded one Mr. Jephthah Ighodaro, 37, in Kirikiri Prison for allegedly defiling his three-year-old twin sons. The case was presided over by Chief Magistrate P. E Nwaka, who did not take the plea of the accused. Therefore, he ordered the prosecutor to duplicate the case and send a copy to the Director of Public Prosecution for advice.
According to CPN who first uncovered the crime, Ighodaro, who resides at No. 1, St. Augustine Street Surulere, Lagos, committed the abuse between January and July this year at his residence, where his twins reside with him given that he was estranged from their mother.
The Lagos State Police Command also arrested one Mr. Olawale Ibitoye, 45, for defiling and marrying off her 14-year-old daughter at the Ketu-Epe area of the state. It was gathered that Ibitoye had been defiling his daughter from age eight before he married her off at age 14 to 33- year- old Moses Okurukpe of Izuru Delta State. Moses on the other hand claimed the father never told him the real age of his daughter.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who paraded Ibitoye and Okurukpe at the command headquarters in Ikeja, disclosed that the incident came to the fore when the survivor became pregnant and was taken to a traditional medicine house, where she laboured for days. He had assured that perpetrators of such crimes would definitely have their day in court, adding that the state has zero- tolerance for sexual abuse.
These are just few of the hundreds of case that has been recorded in the state. Most recently, cases of sodomy against male kids have been on the rise, as mother often neglect to look out for them like they would the girl- child.
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