New Telegraph

Taskforce battles to stem rape tide in Ebonyi

The earnest desire of 13-year-old Joy is to be educated, at least to the university level. However, that dream was doomed because her father, who is a security guard to a professor (name withheld), lecturing at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI), Ebonyi State, had repeatedly told her that he did not have the financial resources to enroll in her school.

However, fortune seemed to have heard her cries and prayers and had come smiling at her. Her dad told her that his boss, the professor, who is over 70 years old, needed a live-in-maid that would be taking care of his two-year-old son. The lecturer discussed his requirements with Joy’s father, and the security guard promised to bring Joy could do the work.

The security guard mentioned Joy after the professor promised that he would personally sponsored the lucky employee from primary school to the university. Joy came and true to his words, the professor enrolled her in school. Although she was supposed to be in junior secondary school (JSS3), the professor for reasons she could not fathom enrolled her in Primary 3.

The girl did not complain with her mind fixated in attaining university level But what she thought was the luckiest break for her, soon became her worst nightmare, as the professor turned her into his sex toy. Joy revealed that the professor had sexually violated her several times.

The nightmare started in June, when she woke and saw the professor lying naked beside her. Joy said: “I saw bloodstains on the bed sheet. In the morning I told my father and he took me to a laboratory where they conducted a pregnancy test on me. The nurse said I was not pregnant, but that I had lost my virginity. I didn’t understand what she meant.

When I got to school, I asked my teacher what it meant to lose one’s virginity, and she explained it to me. I started seeing my period that same June, and I told my teacher about it. She came to the house with me, to tell the professor that I had started menstruating.

After she left, he started coming to my room every night and doing what I don’t like.” Joy repeatedly told her father about the abuse, but he urged her to continue living with the professor because he still didn’t have money to send her to school. Joy narrated: “I stayed until I couldn’t endure it anymore. I went to my teacher and told her what I was passing through.

The matter was reported to the Human Rights Commission and that was how Police got to know about it. I didn’t know when he slept with me in June. I don’t know if he gave me something to drink. I just woke up and saw him lying naked beside me.

But in August, I became aware of what was happening because by this time he had started coming to my room at 2am. This made me unable to sleep. He made it an everyday affair. It was that August I started reporting to my dad, to my mom who is in the village and to my teacher.” The professor was arrested, but everyone was shocked when he was released some hours later. Joy recalled: “Police asked me to move my things to my father’s security post. I have stayed with him for two years now.

I help him in taking care of his two-year-old son. The child was born by my maternal aunt; my mom’s younger sister, who was brought by my father to serve him. He got her pregnant. I can’t go back to him! I’d rather stop schooling! My sister was 17 years old when he got her pregnant. After delivery, she ran away, and then my dad brought me from the village to babysit the boy who is now two years old.

When he discovered that I had exposed him, he started making arrangements for another person who will come and stay with him by the end of this November,” said Joy. She recalled that the professor promised to marry her after he must have finished paying for her education to the university level. In Ebonyi State, rape is on the increase with the alleged perpetrators having their ways despite various efforts to curtail the crime.

It is against this backdrop that the Ebonyi State Gender-Based Violence Taskforce was compelled to visit the Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Garba Aliyu. The Gender- Based Violence Taskforce was inaugurated by USAID under its Health Policy Plus Programme to curb all forms of violence against women, girl and children.

Members of the taskforce team are selected from different sectors in the society. Mrs. Faithvin Nwancho, who led the taskforce team to see the CP, mentioned some cases that had not received professional handling. One of such cases is the professor’s molestation of Joy, which was lodged at Central Police Station, Abakaliki.

There was also the case of a popular cleric, Ambassador Ephraim Ononye of Power House of Prayer Interdenominational Ministry, Abakaliki, Obosi, Anambra State, reported at Kpirikpiri Police Station, Abakaliki. There is also the case of a young lady who was raped. She reported the case to Unwanna Police Station, Afikpo North Local Government Area, amongst several others. Nwancho, a lawyer, alleged that the cases have been compromised at the various divisions where they were reported. She implored the CP to ensure justice for the survivors. She said: “We’re feeling incapacitated because the bottlenecks are making it tough, but we have come to the crossroads.

We do not know how to go about it and so decided to meet you as the security head in the state. We can’t do much around this area without your advice. We have about six cases of abuse which are pending in various police divisions. For instance, there’s a professor at FUNAI, who had been sexually molesting a 13-year-old girl. A complaint was made to the police and the man was arrested, but our greatest dismay is that the man was quickly released. He was not a first offender. He got another girl pregnant six years ago in 2017.

The girl dropped out of school, and just six years after that, this is another case against him. We don’t know what kind of investigation was carried out.” She also explained to Aliyu the drama surrounding the case of Pastor Ononye. “This case has lasted for three months now. This man is a Pastor in Abakaliki here; he opened a church at Anambra, Obosi to be precise.

What he does is that he will come, recruit girls and move them with him, children not girls. He will carry them to Anambra and keep them. One day, he went out and the children ran to Ebonyi State. When he came back, he started looking for them and made inquiries; he was told that the girls were in Ebonyi State. He sent his lawyer to go and arrest the children.” Nwancho said that it was during investigation police discovered that the pastor had been sexually molesting the girls. This compelled the taskforce to step into the matter. She said that the pastor was invited and since then, three months ago, nothing had been heard about the case.

She also told the CP that the pastor was not even arrested. The police boss vowed to ensure the rape suspects were re-arrested and brought to book. He said allowing the suspects to be running about in the environment was very disastrous. He encouraged the taskforce to even go the extra mile in reporting to the organisations where the suspects are working so that they would know about their actions and act accordingly. He added: “The purpose of punishing people is not that we don’t like their faces, but to let others see that the person had been dealt with accordingly.

It will stop others from committing such crimes.” The Public Relations Officer FUNAI, Elom Ubochi, said the management of the school was yet to receive an official report or complaint on the alleged crime committed by the professor, adding immediately if it received the complaint, the matter would be dealt with accordingly.

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in the state said that the number of rape cases it has handled within this year was 63. The state Chairman of FIDA, Grace Iheanacho-Chima, said that cases reported to them between 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, under review would have been more than one hundred in number if not because of constant abandonment of cases by complainants’ families. She explained that out of the 63 cases recorded, 25 victims were between the ages of one to 10 years old. She added that 14 of them were between ages 11 to 18 and 24 were full grown adults. She explained that among challenges affecting success stories in handling rape cases was pending case of rape, with many swept under carpet or compromised by security agents.

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