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• Reasons paedophiles attack children, by experts
By Henry Umahi
Last week, Ahmadu Yaro, who defiled a three-month-old baby in Adogi village in Nasarawa State, bagged a 21-year imprisonment for the crime, which Justice Bashir-Aliyu, in her judgment, described as “barbaric, demonic, and a direct attack on the moral conscience of society.”
The convict will serve the jail term without an option of fine.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, promptly lauded the judgment, saying it was a courageous and important step in protecting children.
She said: “This judgment is a commendable affirmation of the justice system’s role in safeguarding our children.
“Let this ruling serve as a turning point. A signal to all offenders that Nigeria will no longer shield those who violate their children.”
Few weeks earlier, a Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court sitting in Awka, Anambra State, presided over by Justice Peace Otti, sentenced a 34-year-old schoolteacher to 12 years imprisonment for defiling his 11-year-old male JSS 1 student.
Ofomata was charged with rape and inflicting physical harm punishable under Section 3(1) and 4(1), respectively, of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law and the offence of Sexual Abuse punishable under Section 35(2) of the Child’s Right Law of Anambra State.
The convict, a teacher at St Christopher’s Junior Seminary, 3-3 Onitsha, had pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge. He denied penetrating the boy, but admitted to acts amounting to sexual abuse, according to his statement to the police.
Apart from the 12 years imprisonment handed to him, the court also barred him from working in any institution involving minors, including primary, secondary, and tertiary schools.
Justice Otti said: “The lead prosecutor’s final address was compelling and comprehensive. It was rare for cases of sexual offences against boys to receive a conclusive end and justice served to offenders.”
Even clerics are involved. Not long ago, an Abuja high court sitting in Gudu sentenced one Bishop Kenneth Duke to 20 years in jail for raping a 12-year-old girl.
An indigene of Cross River State, the 52-year-old convict committed the offence at his residence behind Dantata Construction Company in the Dakwa area of Abuja. The victim was reportedly brought from Lagos to Abuja to live with Duke and his family. And he violently violated her.
In July, an Ikeja special offences court in Lagos sentenced 45-year-old Pastor Ndukwe Ogbu, to 25 years imprisonment for raping his 14-year-old daughter.
Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, the trial judge, convicted Ogbu for a three-count charge of sexual assault, defilement, and sexual assault by penetration.
A few years ago, a man and his son allegedly took turns to rape their maid, Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbanje from age five until she turned 13. And the girl died.
Indeed, there is a spike in incidents of sexual assault on prepubescent children across the country. From the fringe of the Sahara to the Atlantic coastline, it is the same ugly story.
Benedict Carey wrote: “Images of child sex abuse have reached a crisis point on the internet, spreading at unprecedented rates in part because tech platforms and law enforcement agencies have failed to keep pace with the problem. But less is understood about the issue underlying it all: What drives people to sexually abuse children?
Science in recent years has begun to provide some answers. One thing most paedophiles have in common: They discover, usually as teenagers, that their sexual preferences have not matured like everyone else’s. Most get stuck on the same-age boys or girls who first attracted them at the start of puberty, though some retain interest in far younger children.
Why they do it
An educational psychologist and lecturer at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Dr Blessing Agbo Ntamu, linked the high rate of paedophilic attitude to mental disorder.
According to her, there are two types of paedophilia. One is paedophilic psychological disorder. This is caused by someone at the stage of orientation that is distressed or a harmful person to himself or other people.
Ntamu described the second one as paedophilic sexual orientation, and these are people who just prefer to have sex with younger people.
She said: “We have two types of paedophilia. You have one that is a psychological disorder, a paedophilic psychological disorder, where someone at the stage of orientation that brings distress or harm to him or other people.
“And when it is a paedophilic disorder, it is usually associated with a lot of shame, a lot of guilt, and a lot of distress on the part of the perpetrator.
“Most times, even if they have an attraction towards a child, they may not carry out the action. They may not act on the impulse. It starts when it is a disorder.
“Then we have the paedophilic sexual orientation. These are people who just prefer to have sex with younger people.
“For these people, underage, not just younger people, underage and sexually immature individuals are their choice. For these people, it is not associated with shame or guilt or distress.
“So, they actually just go out and perpetrate the act of defiling younger people, babies, minors, without guilt, without shame and these are mostly the people who act on those impulses. So, what will cause it? Actually, the cause of paedophilia is kind of complex.
“There are several causes ranging from very slight genetic predisposition, unlike other mental health disorders. The gene is like two times as likely to be the cause for paedophilia. There is epigenetic damage, that is environmental events, kick-starting. That is the paedophilic disorder. I am talking about those who have the disorder.
“And like I mentioned before, most people who have the disorder will not act on their impulses. They will have an orientation towards it, or they will have an attraction or impulse towards it. But they are ashamed of it, guilty, they have distress.
“They are 50% of the time less likely to act on it. So, this one will be caused by, like I said, genetics or epigenetics. The genetic cause is very minor, two times less than other mental disorders.
“We have also the environmental factors, like experiencing violence in childhood. That will also be a minor cause. So, it is like an interaction of causes.
“It can be caused by brain injury to the prefrontal cortex. It can be caused by a smaller mass of the amygdala.
“The amygdala is the organ in our brain that’s responsible for emotions, sensing emotions. So, when we have lower amygdala mass, it can cause that. It can be caused by brain mass differences.
“These are all, I guess, brain differences, more or less, abdominal differences, too. When we have high levels of testosterone, it has also been linked.
“There is not a huge quantity of research out there. But the researchers here are linking all these causes.
“So, it’s an interaction of a lot of causes: environmental factors, social factors, brain injury, the biological factors and some genetic factors. But that is when there is a disorder. So, these are the people who just have an orientation.
“Well, this could also be the causes. But the fact that they carry out these actions without guilt, without shame, without regret, means that they are intentionally and knowingly molesting these children.
“So, whether it is a disorder or an orientation, what we need to emphasize is that it is criminal. Any paedophilic person out there, who is molesting children, it’s a criminal act. And how can we ensure that this does not continue?”
She said parents should report suspects to the appropriate authorities for sanctions.
“We should continue to create this awareness and ensure that when we find these people, we bring them to book. We ensure that justice takes place, that they are taken to court and whatever is the legal price they have to pay it. They should be made to face the full wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to other paedophiles out there. Is this disorder treatable? Yes.
“Basically, a paedophile, whatever is the cause, whether it is a disorder, whether it’s an orientation, you can actually seek treatment from psychologists and psychotherapists, and they should be able to help prevent you from acting on these impulses.
“You know, more or less, there is compulsive disorder that can help you to a very large extent bring treatment. It may not be complete treatment, but at least it can help you reach an extent where you don’t act on the impulses, because if you do, the law would not want to know whether it is a disorder, or whether it is an orientation, or whether it’s genetically caused, or biological, or environmentally caused.
“You are going to face the full wrath of the law. We should be more conscious to identify these perpetrators, and bring them to book.
“That would deter other people. In fact, maybe when you are doing another episode, you need to think of who do paedophiles attack?
“Psychological research has shown that it is not just any child out there that they attack. These paedophiles actually profile the children that they groom, and that they play with them.
“So, if they find out that a child comes from a family where maybe the parents are not depressed, the parents are poor, the parents are not very bonded with the child, so the child is less likely to involve the parent.
“They find out a child comes from a home where parents are rich, parents are likely to take it up against them, give them a fight, bring them to book, they would not abuse that child. Research has shown that, and paedophiles have confessed to that. So, they profile children that they abuse.
“So, we need to also ensure that we raise our children right, ensure that we are protecting our children, and that the whole society knows that we will fight for our children.
“We should not be lackadaisical about our children’s health, mental, physical, and otherwise. We should look more into that.
“Being parents, if a paedophile would look at us and say, no, I can’t abuse a child from a good family because I know that they would give me a fight, and stuff like that.”
She added that parents are doing themselves more harm than good.
“The level of destruction, the level of trauma that it causes the child, it might be a life-long trauma, mental distress that the paedophile has brought to that child.
“And as long as you don’t bring that paedophile to book, the paedophile is going to continue abusing other children. As long as he is left free to walk the streets, he will continue abusing more and more children. There is nothing to hide.
“This is not your fault. It is not the child’s fault. If this has happened, the best thing you can do to the child that has been abused is to bring that paedophile to book.
“And it is more likely that if you’re keeping quiet, that paedophile is going to continue abusing that child. So, you are still keeping your child at risk.
“Whatever would be useful for you to keep quiet, the best thing would be to report and ensure that that paedophile is brought to book.
“You’re not doing yourself or the society any good. We need to know that rape and defilement are crimes against the state.
“As long as that is brought to the knowledge of the law, the case leaves your hand. If you remember that we have been working with cases like this, you do not have a right to say, do not prosecute this person because it is my child.
“No. If there is a rape case or there’s a defilement case, it’s a crime against the state. So, the state has the right to prosecute that perpetrator, whether the parents of the victim or the survivor says they want justice or not.
“You are more or less an accomplice as a parent. If you are hiding a perpetrator, you are an accomplice to the crime, because the crime is a crime against the state. So, it is in your interest to ensure that justice is done.”
Also, a certified psychologist, Grace John Oyiko, attribute the problem to societal, cultural and religious orientations. She argued that even parents are accomplices because they shield the perpetrators who are most likely to be family members to avoid stigmatisation.
She stated: “Paedophilia is a psychosexual disorder, generally affecting adults, characterized by sexual interest in prepubescent children or attempts to engage in sexual acts with prepubescent children.
“In psychology it is called paedophilic disorder. Some paedophiles are sexually attracted only to children, whereas others are attracted to both children and adults.
“Paedophiles may be attracted to children of only one sex or to children of either sex.
“Most paedophiles are men, the condition is rare in women. The causes are unclear, although the behaviour has been associated with sexual abuse.
“So, from a psychologist point of view, it is a mental disorder resulting to an abnormal thought process.”
James Cantor, director of the Toronto Sexuality Centre, said: “The biological clues attached to paedophilia demonstrate that its roots are prenatal. These are not genetic; they can be traced to specific periods of development in the womb.”
Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic, added: “People don’t choose what arouses them – they discover it. No one grows up wanting to be a paedophile.”
•With additional report from Okwe Obi, Abuja
