Horrific!

• Pre-teen victims’ appalling  tales of sexual abuse by child rapists
• How they lure kids away with N50 biscuits

By HENRY OKONKWO

Reports of rape easily repulse and horrify us, but when it is our child- our own little girl for example, the horror is indescribable. The mental torture, feelings of disgust, and the guilt can overwhelm to such an extent that you wonder how you can continue to breathe. You feel weighed down that you were not there to protect her from being raped. And you helplessly watch your daughter fall under intense psychological trauma, constant social stigma and distraught.

These are just some of the agonizing torments families of rape victims say they go through. And this is what befell the Ogunaikiefamily when their 12-year-old daughter – Esther was sexually abused by a 33-year-old Opeyemi Ogunnaya, an alleged serial rapist, notorious for lurking around, ambushing and ravaging preteen girls in the community.

Pathetic tales of
pre-teen victims

Recounting the incident to Saturday Sun, Ms Esther a JSS 2 student, said the rape incident occurred at their Ajegunle area of Owode Onirin community in Lagos State. She said she was ambushed when she was on her way home after disposing of the family trash at the community dumpsite, where Mr Ogunnaya popularly called ‘Coach’ approached her, asking her to come assist him in fixing his phone. She was the only girl around the dumpsite, so she sensed danger and wanted to run, but it was too late as she was already in the snare of her assailant. “At the dumpsite, I saw him outside his house. He called me and asked me to come and assist him to operate his phone. I refused to go near him and wanted to run away from the dumpsite, but he ran after me, bundled me into his room and locked the door. I tried to scream for help but he covered my mouth with his left hand, forcefully removed my pants with his right hand and then raped me.

After he raped me, he offered me N200. I told him I don’t need any money and ran home crying. One of our neighbours saw me and I told her what happened. She raised the alarm and went to call my mother,” she narrated.

Esther’s mother- Mrs. Ogunaike was home that evening awaiting her daughter’s return, when she got jolted by cacophonous shouts of residents calling her to come out and help her daughter. She ran out and saw her daughter crying and wailing. Esther, on sighting her mother ran to her crying and shivering as she blurted out: “Mummy, I’ve been raped.”

According to Mrs. Ogunaike, she was dazed at those words. “When I heard how my daughter was raped, I was shocked, confused and I didn’t know what to do. My husband wasn’t at home so I called him on phone, and broke the terrible news. He was enraged and urged me to get in contact with the landlord association in our community. I alerted my landlord, who went with me to Abbey Street- the scene where Ogunnaya raped my daughter. I wanted to see the man who raped my child. When I got there, angry residents were already gathered and have started beating him up. They wanted to lynch him because I got to know that the man- ‘Coach’ as he was known has been a serial sex offender in the community. I had to beg them not to take the law into their hands through jungle justice.”

Mrs Ogunaike learnt from residents that Ogunnaya had on many occasions been arrested for allegedly raping women and little girls. But the cases did not see the light of day because many of his victims failed to cry out. And the few that did, refused to press charges because they got settled by Ogunnaya’s mother. “I learnt that young girls in the community go in groups whenever they are passing by his house. But my daughter, and even myself, didn’t know about this,” she bemoaned.

Almost three months after the terrible incident of her daughter, Mrs Ogunaike told Saturday Sun that she and her family are still battling emotional and psychological trauma and stigma. “It hasn’t been easy for us. My daughter has not been herself again. She’s been having series of complication from the medications she’s been getting. Also she convulses intermittently. We made her stay at home keeping her away from school for weeks because of the treatment she’s getting. And each time she walks along the streets, residents keep murmuring among themselves pointing at her, while some would even call her and be asking her stupid questions about the incident.”

As awful as Esther’s ordeal is, hers was not even so bad when you compare her rape experience to Ms Ajarat Ogunsanya, another 12-year-old victim residing at Adebanwo Street, Oworonshoki Lagos, Ajarat was allegedly raped multiple times by their 46-year-old tenant, Mr. Bola Odukoya, a man they simply know as Daddy Jerry.

Saturday Sun was told that the alleged defiler, a commercial motorcyclist, married and has an 11-year-old son, constantly seized any opportunity to rape Ms Ajarat on several occasions. According to Ajarat, she experienced excruciating pains in her stomach after every encounter. She bore her anguish alone for weeks, until she imploded under the weight of her inner torment, and then decided to tell her guardians what she has been going through. “When it happened that first time in mid April, I never suspected anything. He came when I was alone with my brothers in the house. Then he gave N50 to my two brothers to buy biscuits. He lured them away with that and then grabbed me, covered my mouth with his hands to keep me from shouting, then ripped my pants apart, and raped me there in our parlour. I was left in blood and pains,” Ajarat told Saturday Sun.

“My grandmother noticed my changed demeanour, and asked what was wrong with me, but I couldn’t tell what had happened. I couldn’t tell her because the man threatened to kill me if I ever expose what transpired. I kept bleeding but couldn’t tell anyone. I knew I wasn’t menstruating because I have already seen it that month.

“Few days later, he came again. It was then I told him that I have been bleeding since after he raped me. But he told me not to worry that I would be okay. I was so scared, he started talking to me in a commanding tone, and threatening me if I don’t obey him. I was like a moron and that was how he continued raping me again and again.

“I didn’t know what to do, or who to talk to because he comes and rapes me when no one is home. And when people are at home, he keeps monitoring and threatening me never to say anything. I knew this would continue if I don’t do anything but I don’t know what to do. He wasn’t thinking of stopping until I made up my mind to tell my aunty what I was passing through.”

When Ajarat told her aunty- Mrs Modupe Aderibigbe, the petty trader told Saturday Sun that she went numb in shock. “That morning, I was in the kitchen when she came to me saying she has something to tell me. I was curious but she said she’s afraid of saying it because she was told that she would die. So I went on to pray for her and even gave her my anointing oil to drink and then poured it on her head too. She was still afraid so I took her away from the vicinity and encouraged her to tell me what was tormenting her. That was when she said: ‘Daddy Jerry has been raping me’. I was so shocked and confused. I didn’t know what to do or how to handle the weighty news she told me.

“I decided to confront Daddy Jerry. But he denied it and accused me of trying to set him up. He pointedly called our bluff saying we can go ahead and do whatever we want. So I went to the police and that was how he was arrested and he later confessed to the crime.”

Another mother,  Mrs. Agnes’s (surname withheld) 13-year-old daughter- Obianuju was raped by their co-tenant; who is now on the run since last June at Ajangbadi area of Lagos. She also revealed her horrifying ordeal to Saturday Sun. “My daughter couldn’t bring herself to tell me what happened. She wrote it down in a letter, so she didn’t have to face me when I read it. I passed the letter on to her dad, because she couldn’t tell him and I didn’t know how to tell him either.”

According to the mother, her hitherto bright daughter became a ghost of herself. “She was traumatised and started to struggle at school and even attempted to take her own life. We’ve been through a lot since after that, bad behaviour, trouble at school and even ended up in hospital after trying to take her own life.

“She suffered an inevitable period of sleeplessness, panic attacks and depression. My husband raged. He wanted to know exactly what was being done to catch the rapist and what should be done to him if and when he was caught. We wanted to search the streets in search of the beast who had violated my daughter and turned our lives upside down. We wanted revenge or punishment for the child’s rapist.

Why child rape is prevalent in Nigeria – Expert

Child rape is one of the most traumatising forms of violence against children, usually committed by a person in a position of power and trust in the child’s life. Although several cases are officially reported to the appropriate authorities in Nigeria, most social workers believe the majority of rape cases go unreported mainly because parents want to protect their children from being stigmatised and embarrassed.

According to Alhaji Abdul Rasheed Awofesho,  Coordinator of Child Protection Network (CPN) -an NGO out to fight for the rights of the child, there is a high prevalence of child rape incident in Nigeria. “It is only after rape has touched your life, you begin to realise its prevalence, and until we accept the magnitude of the problem, it will continue to go unreported because the victims rightly assume that society will not believe them.

“Rape happens to all sorts of women (and men), devastating them and their families. And while this situation exists, an increasing number of rapists are learning that they can get away with it – again, and again, and again”, he stated.