3 months ago
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VICTOR AYENI writes about the dehumanising treatment faced by victims of rape and their family members, the frustration they endure when denied justice, and the deep-seated pain of seeing culprits set free by the police roam freely without thorough investigation
As Mr Samuel Olajide sat in the dimly lit living room of his house in Egbeda, Lagos State, he was engulfed in a mixture of rage and sorrow.
Clenching his hands into fists, he recounted the traumatising ordeal of his 17-year-old daughter (name withheld) to our correspondent.
“A suspect broke into our home, sexually assaulted my daughter and stole N180,000,” he said with indignation.
Part of Olajide’s gesticulations depicted a father pained by his failure to protect his daughter from the prying eyes of child sex predators.
The father of three felt he could have averted the incident that stole his daughter’s chastity but on July 11, 2023, fate had other plans.
“My wife and I were at work when the sad incident befell my daughter. She was reading the Bible when suddenly, she heard some footsteps. She pulled the curtains but didn’t see anyone. Later, she went to the room, undressed to take her bath, but began hearing strange sounds from the kitchen.
“As my daughter went to the kitchen to check, a guy dashed out from the dark, and as she quickly made to lock the door from the inside, the intruder forced the kitchen door open, dragged her into the living room, and landed heavy blows on her head. When I got home and knocked at the gate, no one responded.”
Olajide, who also runs a farm in his compound said eventually when he found his way into the living room, he was horrified to see his daughter lying unconscious on the floor with a broken dish and a jar of broken hair cream lying beside her.
He said, “My daughter was lying naked on the floor. Her clothes had been torn and dipped inside her mouth, and her face was covered with mucus. I checked for her pulse and saw that it was still beating, so I quickly called a doctor friend and he instructed me on what to do.
“After being revived, she described her attacker as a tall, slim, fair-complexioned young man with a mark on his hand, and dark spots and pimples on his face. She added that he wore a green top and a pair of jeans.
“The case was reported to the Isheri Police Division and my daughter was taken to the Sexual Assault Centre at Igando General Hospital for proper care and treatment.”
According to the father of three, the descriptions of the attacker given by his daughter and another resident matched that of a young man in the area identified as Osunyomi (surname withheld).
Osunyomi’s live-in friend (name withheld) disclosed that on the morning of July 11, his companion suddenly returned home, claiming he had changed his mind about going to work.
Authorities believed that he broke into Olajide’s house on that same day and on July 18, the police arrested Osunyomi at his workplace.
According to the 17-year-old victim, the shirt he wore on the day of his arrest was the same one he wore when he broke into their home and sexually violated her.
“The case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, and all the evidence gathered, handed over to an investigative police officer identified simply as Femi at the Anti-Trafficking Unit,” Olajide revealed.
Suspect released
Speaking further with Saturday PUNCH, the distraught father said after he paid N25,000 for the suspect’s fingerprint and footprint to be taken into record and the case registered with the police, the IPO instructed him to arrange a vehicle for them to visit the crime scene, which he did.
He said, “After being forced to pay N15,000 for a vehicle of their choice, they didn’t turn up. Rather, they went to the suspect’s workplace and spent hours there before coming to my house. After three weeks, I didn’t hear from them. Then on Monday, September 18, I went there with a lawyer.
“When one of the policemen at the office, Supol Kazeem, saw me, he embarrassed and sent me away. It was when I reported to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCID, Panti that the policeman then took my lawyer to his office for a meeting.
“When my lawyer returned, he disclosed that Kazeem had released the suspect because he believed they were lying against the suspect. He also told my lawyer that the report showed the suspect didn’t touch my daughter. It was at that point that I called the Commissioner of Police, the Ministry of Justice and the NBA at the time, to intervene and get justice for my daughter.”
Olajide said he is more pained that the suspect now moves freely in the area, a development which still traumatises his daughter to date.
He said, “I am so angry and sad right now,” Olajide blurted. “My daughter is dejected and I am disappointed in the police. The suspect was freed and the case has gone cold since September.
“I was the one who carried out much of the investigation and found out that the suspect and his friend, Femi, were criminals and even their landlord confirmed this. Their house is close to mine; the suspect entered my compound using the fence at the back and he admitted that he had been monitoring us and knew when my wife and I went to work that Tuesday.
“Now, this guy even threatens me openly, saying there is nothing we can do to him anymore. There are days I feel like taking laws into my hands. What kind of a system is this? My life and that of my daughter is still not safe because this man still walks freely out there.”
Meanwhile, in October 2023, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, when contacted by our correspondent, urged the family to report the case to the agency and the Gender Desk Department of the state police command.
“They can visit our office located at Nobel House, Plot 3, Otunba Jobi Fele Way, Central Business District, to ensure the victim can access holistic support and services,” she wrote in a text message sent to our correspondent.
When contacted for an update on the case, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, did not answer the call made to his mobile number and did not respond to a text message sent to him.
Raped in police station
In another development on June 29, a 17-year-old secondary school student was allegedly raped by an Assistant Superintendent of Police identified simply as Owolabi at the Ogudu Police Station in Ojota, Lagos.
The senior officer had reportedly promised to help the victim track and retrieve her phone stolen at gunpoint about two weeks earlier.
Narrating how the incident happened, the teenager said, “On that Saturday when he asked me to come to Ogudu Police Division where he works, saying policemen had arrested the suspect who stole my phone, my mother was in the market and I didn’t even know the station, I had to ask for directions to the place.”
Our correspondent learnt that when the girl showed up at the police station, the suspect invited her into his office, locked the door, and allegedly raped her.
“After raping me in his office, he removed my shoes and made me sit on the floor. I began to regret coming to the station or even attempting to retrieve my phone in the first place. He harshly told me to get out of his sight.
“He told me, ‘Did you see that everyone here calls me the boss and obeys me? You can’t do anything.’ When I walked out of the police station, he still followed me outside and warned me that if I said a word to anyone, he would deal with me,” the teenager told our correspondent in tears.
In an emotion-laden tone, her mother, Aramide Olupona, told our correspondent that her daughter began to bleed after the rape and was rushed to hospital for treatment.
She said, “On the evening of that Saturday, she began complaining of stomach pain, but by Sunday she began to bleed. We went to two hospitals but they couldn’t attend to us because their doctors were either busy or weren’t available.
“We went to Gbaja Hospital, where we were attended to and from there we went to the Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital for medical tests and collection of evidence. All her medical reports are there.
“Owolabi lives at the Iponri Police Barrack and my shop is beside his house, so he sometimes comes to sit at my shop. I never expected that he would do such a thing to my daughter or that he had been watching her. She’s not wayward or an outgoing girl.
“After the incident, his numbers were switched off and the Area Commander told me his whereabouts were unknown. Even when the Lagos State Domestic Violence Agency tried to reach him, his number was unreachable. We wrote petitions but there was no response,” Olupona stated.
After the story was published on July 13, many social media users expressed outrage at the case and the allegation that the police had attempted to cover up the crime.
The following day, Hundeyin issued a statement noting that the officer had turned himself in and had been arrested.
“The command assures the public that there is no attempt at a cover-up as such hideous acts are at variance with the code of conduct and professional ethics of the Nigeria Police Force,” Hundeyin stated.
Questionable silence on test results
Olupona told our correspondent that a DNA sample was taken from the accused policeman and also from her daughter as part of requirements for medical tests and they were told the result would be ready within 48 hours.
Later that week, Hundeyin disclosed using his verified handle on X.com, “A medical examination has been conducted on the 17-year-old girl. The result is still being awaited.
“If the results cannot prove anything, it would be difficult to secure a conviction in court. The same procedure would be followed if you were the accused.”
The following week, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade, also said the command was awaiting the medical report of the test, adding that the accused policeman has been issued a query and is currently under detention.
But for the victim’s mother, the awaited medical result was beginning to seem like a conspiracy of silence.
She said, “They keep saying they are waiting for the medical result, but I was personally told at Mirabel Centre, where the test was conducted that its result would be ready in 48 hours. Look at the calendar, we are now in another month. Why has the suspect not been charged in court?
“So far, there has been no communication with us or indication of where the case is headed. Let me tell you something, they want to bury this case and they are being complicit in silence.
“If they are not, they should charge the suspect in court. My daughter has not been herself anymore. The police should fear God and do what is right. We want justice. This evil should not be covered up.”
Defilement case stalled
In May, a Lagos-based mother, Rita Ebirim, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, accused her brother-in-law of defiling her five-year-old daughter.
She explained that her estranged husband had filed for divorce on August 2, 2022, and while waiting for the trial, she was ordered by the court to allow the father to have access to their daughter.
The mother said the brother-in-law allegedly defiled her daughter during her second visit to her father.
She said, “Sometime in February last year, he came to pick her up for the first time in the morning and returned her in the evening. That day, I sensed something was wrong with my girl and I voiced my suspicion to my lawyer but he waved it off.
“The next time, he came to take her to visit him and she returned to me at night beyond the speculated time. Later, when I wanted to bathe her, she started crying, pushed my hands away and said I shouldn’t touch her ‘there’.
“When I asked her who touched her there, she told me her uncle. When I called her father, he said he (the uncle) didn’t do anything to her and instructed me to take the girl to the hospital knowing full well that it was late at night. After she was examined at two hospitals, the doctors said she had bruises on her private parts, because she had been sexually molested.”
Our correspondent gathered that the case was reported at the Ketu Police Station and the LSDVA.
“Although the suspect was arrested, he was later released on bail, and up till now, we are still awaiting a hearing in court. The case has needlessly dragged on and it feels like justice is elusive,” Ebirim added.
When contacted regarding the case, Vivour-Adeniyi, disclosed that a forensic interview had been conducted for the child and that the case had been referred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Speaking with our correspondent on Tuesday, Mrs Ebirim explained, “I still spoke with Vivour-Adeniyi this morning about the case. I had to get another lawyer and we’ve written to the Attorney-General, but we still haven’t heard anything from them.
“I can see that the case has extra power on it. The DPP is ready to work but she wants to unravel who exactly is the person that is stalling this case.
“Nothing has been done on the matter yet but we still keep pushing. I feel traumatised because my little girl has been through so much and I am ready to go to any length to get justice for her.”
Frightening statistics
In May, the National Bureau of Statistics report titled, ‘Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria 2022,’ revealed that the percentage of females who experience rape increased annually.
“In 2020, 29.00 per cent of females were victims of rape, which increased significantly in 2021 and 2022 to 48.00 per cent and 65.00 per cent respectively.
“Meanwhile, across the states, FCT had the highest in 2020 with 10.00 per cent, and Benue State recorded the highest incidence of rape for females in both 2021 and 2022 with 15.00 per cent and 12.00 per cent respectively,” a part of the report stated.
Also, data obtained by The PUNCH Newspaper indicated that Lagos State has experienced a shocking surge in sexual and gender-based violence over the past five years.
The document showed that reported cases rose steadily, from 3,446 in 2019 to 6,389 in 2023.
In July 2023, the Lagos State Police Command said it recorded 111 sexual assault cases between April and June 2023.
Hundeyin also noted that the command was concerned about the increasing number of sexual assault cases in the state, adding that within the same period, 14 rape cases and 56 cases of domestic violence were recorded, while 99 suspects were charged in court.
“About 83 cases were currently under investigation, which shows the command’s commitment to prosecuting any domestic and gender-based violence in Lagos State,” Hundeyin said.
Similarly, the Women at Risk International Foundation, in collaboration with the United States Consulate General, Lagos, revealed that 33 per cent of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have experienced physical and or sexual abuse in their lifetime.
‘Justice delayed by corruption’
However, a lawyer and social commentator, Liborous Oshoma, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, highlighted the negative influence of corruption, stigmatisation, religious beliefs and lack of training in the criminal justice system of the country.
He said, “The first problem is the inherent corruption in the Nigerian criminal justice system and you will find out that the victims of sexual defilement or assault, who don’t have the financial capacity don’t usually get justice for themselves.
“Due to corruption in the system, you will have police compromising cases and when they take ‘compensation money’ from suspects, it makes it difficult for victims to get justice because the tendency for investigations to cover up the crimes is very high.
“The successful cases are the ones where civil society groups, non-governmental organisations, women’s rights groups and the media wade in.
Another reason is stigmatisation. There are certain ways rape victims are interrogated by the police, which makes them feel re-violated and in the corrupt society we live in, there is a way women’s bodies are objectified.
“Many times, the suspects know that their reputation is at stake so they either negotiate with the victim or utilise political means. Then, religion also plays a role. When a sexual assault case happens in a religious setting, you will hear people saying ‘Don’t bring down a man of God,’ or they resort to this idea that you should leave it for God to judge.”
Oshoma added that there was a need for policemen to be trained and re-trained to ensure that perpetrators of sexual assault are not allowed to go freely.
“I like what the government has done in setting up a department cut out for these cases, but that department can only report to the police and the bureaucracy involved in having to go to the Ministry of Justice adds to the cogs that delay justice, and this weighs down the mind of the survivors,” he said.
‘Victims need support’
Speaking with The PUNCH, the co-founder and Director of Action Health Incorporated, Dr Uwemedimo Esiet, said rape victims need psychosocial support to heal and get their life back.
He added that public institutions in the country should be audited to know their level of compliance and understanding of what constitutes sexual abuse and practices.
Esiet said, “The first thing is that a victim should be examined through medical and psychosocial management. Psychosocial management is a lifetime engagement. People have been raped and then ended up committing suicide. This is because they felt worthless due to the traumatic experience.
“Some have had to change schools, and stopped school, while some have developed mental illnesses on a long-term basis. So you can’t have a one-size-fits-all strategy. We should deal with each case as the situation demands.
“It can take some people two to three years to heal, while for some, it could be for a lifetime. This is why we have always emphasised that beyond medical treatment, there should be psychosocial support.”
LASG reacts
Speaking on the major factors that contribute to delays in the criminal justice process in sexual assault cases, Vivour-Adeniyi said they are caused by societal and institutional barriers.
She said, “On the societal level, survivors and their families often face intense pressure from respected figures in their communities to withdraw their cases. In many parts of society, sexual assault is viewed as a ‘private affair’ that should be resolved within the family rather than through the legal system.
“This societal pressure to withdraw cases is compounded by a deeply flawed perception of sexual assault survivors, often leading to the victim being blamed for the perpetrator’s actions, forgetting that a crime has been committed against the state.
“There are also instances where survivors or their parents are even threatened by community leaders to drop the case, and failure to comply could result in the community becoming hostile toward the family. Fortunately, the narrative is changing in Lagos State, through various programmes DSVA actively engages with communities. The agency is raising awareness about Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and educating them on their responsibilities as mandated reporters.”
She further listed institutional challenges that include inadequate investigation by law enforcement agencies as factors, adding that effective investigation was crucial because criminal cases were not won in court but at the investigation stage.
Vivour-Adeniyi added, “Recognising this, the state has over the years, strengthened its partnership with the Lagos State Police Command, ensuring that trained personnel are stationed in designated police stations, known as Family Support Units.
“However, there are still instances where the Directorate of Public Prosecutions issues a ‘Non-Prosecution’ legal advice due to insufficient evidence, inconsistencies, or ambiguities, which is ruled in favour of the suspect.
“This reflects the legal principle that states that ‘it’s better that 10 guilty persons escape than for one innocent person to be wrongfully punished’. Further compounding these issues are the inadequate resources, logistics, and underfunding of critical stakeholders.”
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