22-year-old rapes 3-year-old deaf

EVEN the police officers who arrested the suspect could not but betray their emotions when Mrs Kafayat Abiola came to report at the police station that her three-year-old daughter (names withheld) was raped by a 22-year-old Uche Chukwu last week.
According to the mother of the three-year-old girl who resides at Baba Isale Compound, Kudeti area, Ibadan, the suspect took advantage of the little girl’s’ condition to perpetrate the evil act. She added that when the girl’s behaviour was abnormal, she tried to confirm her strange reaction where the girl was able to narrate what happened.
On sensing the development, Mrs Abiola was said to have raised the alarm and reported the matter to the police. The victim was then taken to the Adeoyo Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan,  where medical examination was conducted on the girl and penetration was confirmed.
The suspect, Chukwu, sources informed, is currently undergoing interrogation at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Iyaganku, Ibadan.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, Oyo State Police Commnad, DSP Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor, said the incident was a sad and unfortunate one.
“The suspect committed a crime against a minor and a physically challenged person. He will be charged to court after preliminary investigation has been conducted and if the court finds him culpable, he has to face the music.”
Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the News agency of Nigeria (NAN), incidence of rape has taken a serious dimension in Ibadan, Oyo State, with over 20 new cases reported monthly.
The survey revealed that the menace was fast assuming a dangerous dimension with reported abuse of minors.
James Ajibola, the legal adviser to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State chapter, one of those polled in the survey, said that rape was one of the social vices currently ravaging the society.
Ajibola, said that aside the fact that it is an aberration, underage girls are now major targets of rapists, leaving their victims with horrible experiences.
The legal practitioner said that the Nigerian constitution defines rape and spells out penalties for culprits, which range from two to 14 years jail term, depending on the severity of the crime or court’s discretion.
He said that it was very difficult to give an accurate statistics of rape cases, because of a number of factors.
According to him, the intervention by various people to settle rape cases out of court had contributed to seeing rapists go unpunished and thus encouraged more rape cases.
“Over 20 new rape cases are recorded on a monthly basis in Ibadan alone, with only one out of 100 per cent rape cases receiving diligent prosecution,” he said.
Intimidation and poverty on the part of the victims, he noted, were other reasons why rapists go free.
In his own submission, Dr Benjamin Olley, a lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan, described rapists as insane.
Olley wondered why the quest for power and materialism should result into the destruction of innocent and underage girls.
“The situation in which men have sexual intercourse with underage girls is abnormal,” he said.
Olley also noted that the act had many negative implications for the victims.
“They are exposed to various sexually transmitted diseases and more often than not, they lose their self-esteem or could even become promiscuous,” he said.
A rape victim, who gave her horrible experience in court during a cross examination, felt dejected in her account.
The victim, a 25-year-old undergraduate student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, said that the rapist threatened to behead her if she refused to allow him.
The two-month old pregnant lady narrated that the culprit had other men who collaborated with him to ensure that the illicit act was carried out on her in spite of her plea.
“When I was shouting, some men were there, but did not help me,” she said.
Another Ibadan-based legal practitioner, Jelil Rufai, explained that the Nigerian society is in a serious immorality crisis with different degrees of disintegration in social values and norms.
Rufai, added that unemployment was one of the root causes of rape, which had conversely led young men to drugs and their uncontrolled urge for sex.
“I also suggest that men who are of age should get married,” he added.
A human rights activist with the Child Protection Network, an NGO based in Ibadan, who preferred anonymity, linked the menace to the high divorce rate in the society.
According to him, many couples had abandoned their vulnerable children to be raped by idle men.
“I will also advise our girls to shun provocative dresses,” he said.
He called for the collaboration of all stakeholders, urging them to be vigilant and to report suspected rapists.
He also called on the police and the courts to urgently tackle the numerous rape cases on ground.
“If we have quick dispensation of rape cases, it would discourage the offenders,” he said.
Grace Akinsehinwa, prosecutor and an Assistant Superintendent of Police, who has prosecuted many rape cases in Ibadan, blamed many parents and guardians, whose children and wards have been defiled or raped, for not pursuing their cases to logical conclusion.
She added that those parents and guardians would rather prefer to keep mute than expose those involved, all in the name of protecting the minor’s future.
She noted that the Nigeria Police had been educating parents, guardians and women on the readiness of the police to assist them in the prosecution of cases.
DSP Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor, the Police Public Relations Officer, Oyo State Command, condemned the act, saying that men who engaged in the act had fallen below the animal level.
Clet-Ilobanafor, however, said that the command would soon begin a Police community outreach programme against rape.
She said, “The programme, when it starts, would aim at enlightening girls on how to avoid being raped by men.”