The rising cases of rape,
defilement and sodomy in Akwa Ibom State in recent times is that which must
compel one to shudder in utter disbelief, as this has put the moral sanctity of
the culprits into scorn.
The trauma in which the victims,
in most cases are girl-children below thirteen years of age pass through can
better be imagined than experienced.
When our reporter visited the
Akwa Ibom Police headquarters Ikot-Akpanabia, Uyo, to assess the level of rape
in the state, one of the rape victims, a ten year old girl, beautiful and
intelligent narrated how she was defiled by her mother’s lover who is also a
pastor.
Amid tears and in a voice ladened
with emotions, the victim narrated how she begged the man to let her go that
night but he refused and still had his way and got her deflowered.
According to her, “I begged him,
I begged that uncle to allow me to sleep with my younger sister that night who
is six, but he refused! he insisted I should not wake my sister who was fast
asleep, I watched him as he hurriedly pulled his trousers, removed his boxers,
applied cream on my body and his. I was crying, he never moved, he held me down
and raped me that night.
“But my sister later woke up and
joined me to weep without knowing what happened. The uncle was angry, he
flogged my sister for crying, later, he told neighbours that he flogged us
because we urinated in bed.”
The girl added that she later
reported the incident to her grandmother who got the man arrested.
While parading the suspect
alongside other suspects, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State
Odiko MacDon said the suspect Rev. Anwanga Essien is a pastor with the
Restoration Bible Church, Itiam street, Uyo, and the victim, his step-daughter.
Investigation revealed that the
rapist pastor had deceived the victim’s mother, got her pregnant and forced her
to abandon her matrimonial home to live with him.
It was actually a sight to
behold, the day of the parade as the biological father of the victim was there,
the pregnant mother was also there with a face soaked in shame. In an
interaction with our correspondent, she(victim’s mother) blamed her mother for
being in a hurry to arrest his new lover (pastor) without her knowledge,
lamenting that there was no one else to take care of her since the pastor lover
was remanded in custody for over two weeks.
Despite the pains and
psychological trauma boldly written all over the little girl’s face, she still
exhibited that the love and bond between mother and daughter can not easily be
broken, she disengaged her hands from the clips of her father, rushed towards
the direction her mother was standing aimlessly and sobbing, maybe to console
her, but was called back by her father with a look like, ‘don’t go near before
you will be infested with immorality.’
In the midst of that confusion in
the girl’s mind, existed strength and vigour even as she broke down in tears
the second time gazing at how tears raced down her mother’s cheeks. In all, she
couldn’t help it because the stern-looking father had restrained her from
moving further. But she managed to wave at her mother passionately in
reassurance to be strong, that all would be well as she went back to her father
who swiftly took her away from the vicinity.
But, it’s quite appalling that
some clergies expected to protect our daughters and instil moral values in them
are neck-deep into rape and defilement. Behind their veil of righteousness lies
scores of immorality and filthiness without taking into cognizance that the
Creator sees inside out.
This menace rearing it’s ugly
head in the state lately has become so worrisome that mothers and caregivers
have been encouraged to put up defence mechanism through sex education to
protect their daughters against these sex marauders who are most times their
kiths and kins
More worrisome is how some of our
daughters have mysteriously fallen prey into the hands of their fathers who
mindlessly devoured them sexually without considering the emotional,
psychological and health trauma they could pass through.
Recall, that we had
reported how one Joseph Sunday of Obot Ideng, in Ibesikpo local government area
of the state raped his two daughters aged nine and thirteen for more than three
years with flimsy excuse of testing whether his manhood was still functional.
The suspect, Sunday threatened
his daughters with the idol to dissuade them from divulging his incestuous act
to anyone.
The suspect had told our
correspondent, “My wife left me some years ago because of some family issues
and relocated to Rivers State. I have been the only one taking care of my
daughters. I just want to test if my manhood is still functional using my
daughters.”
Also, a prophet of a new
generation church reportedly prophesied that a little girl was a witch and
lured the parents to bring the child to his house to exorcise the “demons.”
After sending the parents away, the man of God defiled the six-year-old girl.
Another mind-blowing incident was
that of one Okon Bassey aged 40 who is also a presiding pastor of Mount Zion
Light House Full Gospel, Obio Imo Lane Uyo sleeping with his daughter for over
seven years.
The acclaimed pastor according to
the police command started having sex with his daughter when she was thirteen
inside the church vestry.
The victim, a secondary school
student narrated how the father must demand sex from her before paying her fees
or meeting any of her basic needs without the knowledge of her mother.
The victim further narrated how
she got pregnant for her father three times and they were all aborted by the
mother.
The nagging question becomes,
“would the woman who was good at terminating pregnancies of her daughter feign
ignorance of the person behind the pregnancies? Or was she trying to save her
marriage after discovering the truth at the expense of her daughter? That is
where carelessness, callousness and selfishness of some mothers can come into
play.
The victim also disclosed that
her father had threatened to use his office as a ‘man of God’ to place a curse
on her if she had made any attempt to reveal their secret.
The ‘secret,’ she kept for over
seven years until she clocked 20 and made up her mind to let the cat out of the
bag and damn the consequences. This, she did by first of all meeting the
guidance and counsellor in her school and bared her mind. The councillor took
the matter up and the father was picked up by police. Though the father has
blamed his randy behaviours on the devil.
More detestable was a case of one
Iniobong Okon Moses ‘m’ of Ikot Amupe Obio Offot, Uyo, aged 23, who was
arrested on 9th November 2019 for defiling his two-year-old Step-daughter.
DAILY POST reports that the
suspect said he was drunk that fateful night, came in and saw the little girl,
grabbed her and penetrated her, thereby causing severe injuries on the girl’s
vagina.
The suspect in an interrogation
blamed the incident on alcohol, adding that he actually thought the victim was
his wife.
Though from investigation, one of
the main causes of high rate of rape and other vices recently witnessed in the
State, was drug abuse. Most young people in the society who are involved in
taking hard drugs and alcohol have been enmeshed in some of these social vices.
One of the suspects paraded, a
serial rapist, Saviour Umoh Ukpong of Akpan Etuk Street, Uyo said he always had
the urge to rape girls anytime he drank alcohol excessively or took any hard
substance.
According to him, “I am sorry for
raping girls, but it happens anytime I was inside the bottle ma. Some, I lure
to my house, others I do along the bush path at night. But na bottle dey
causam.”
Saviour, notorious of raping
secondary school girls was arrested on 14th November 2019 for defiling a
15-year-old girl by deceiving the victim that he was a prophet, hypnotised her
and took her home for his devilish act.
The victim, when she regained
consciousness at about few minutes past 9pm, went home, still on her school
uniform and narrated to her mother what she could recall. The suspect was later
arrested.
Consequently, One 46-year-old Nsikan
Ufia Udo ‘m’ of Nung Akpan Obio Offot, Uyo, was paraded for raping a
12-year-old girl. The suspect confessed that he committed the act under the
influence of alcohol.
According to a statement by the
police, “on the said date, he called the victim and sent her on an errand to
buy him cigarettes. On her return, he dragged her into his room and defiled
her. On interrogation, he claimed he did it under the influence of alcohol.”
Despite advocacy from different
quarters both governmental and non-governmental organisations to enact stiffer
punishment against those found culpable of rape, cases of rape have continued
to grow in appreciable proportion. In 2019 alone, according to a police source,
about 61 cases of rape and defilement have been reported to the police in the
state while the unreported cases are even more than the reported ones.
According to the Coordinator of
Coalition of Eastern NGOs, Mr. Israel Ekanem, rape in most cases has been
allowed to go down the drains due to negotiations by parents of the victims and
the perpetrator as well as local councils trying to resolve issues in
communities.
Investigations revealed that the
reason some victims seldomly exposed their molesters was due to shame and fear
of stigma or simply because those convicted are still walking the streets with
their heads high due to lighter or weak sanctions.
But the wife of the governor, Dr.
Martha Emmanuel through her pet project, Family Empowerment Youth Reorientation
Path Initiative, FEYrep had said it would no longer be business as usual.
The coordinator of FEYRep, Mrs
Ime Inyang had said with the partnership with Women Lawyers in the state under
the aegis of FIDA, many victims are coming out to report, noting that FEYrep
had secured 15 convictions of rape cases so far.
Meanwhile, the police
spokesperson, Odiko Macdon in an interaction ascribed the emerging cases of
rape and sodomy in the state to moral bankruptcy and promised the command’s
readiness to clamp down on these sexual predators even as Nigeria has
officially launched it’s National Sexual Offenders’ Register, ‘Say no to Rape
and all forms of sexual abuse.’
People have been encouraged to
report offences from anywhere in the world by dialling *627# for prompt and
effective investigation.
Also, the commissioner for
Agriculture and women affairs, Dr. Glory Edet, during a one- Day training
workshop on Gender-based Violence Mitigation for the Police and Relevant
Non-governmental Organizations disclosed that her ministry in 2019 had attended
to over 452 cases of GBV and 18 culprits had been prosecuted while 16 have been
sent to different terms of imprisonment.
She further disclosed that child
defilement and rape were among non-bailable offences in the State.
On its own, the Akwa Ibom State
House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey as the
Speaker had passed a bill issuing a capital punishment against persons
convicted of rape and other violent crimes in the state.
Therefore, there is hope that
with the voices from different corners in the state against rape, defilement
and gender-based violence would be nipped in the bud in no distant time.
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