A 14-year-old girl on Tuesday narrated how a man hired to look after her grandfather raped her.
As she testified before a court in Kubwa, Abuja, organisations and individuals sought ways to stamp out the menace in the country.
The Junior Secondary School (JSS) three pupil said the caregiver, Godwin Onuminya, 21, attacked her as she was changing her clothes.
She told the court that she returned home from school at 1 p.m. and entered her room to change from her school uniform on November 4, 2019.
“While trying to wear my trousers, Onuminya hurriedly entered my room and held my leg. I tried to shout, but he covered my mouth and nose. I hit him with my left elbow, then he pushed me to the bed, I struggled with him and heard a crack in my neck, and I fell unconscious,” she said.
She said when she opened her eyes, she found herself in hospital and saw Onuminya and her uncle standing.
“The nurses asked me if I could remember what happened, then Onuminya winked at me and signaled me with his hands to keep quiet. I asked the nurses why I was bleeding from my private part and they confirmed that I was raped,” she said.
Justice Kezziah Ogbonnaya adjourned the matter until June 17.
On Monday, a chief magistrate court in Makurdi, Benue State, remanded 35-year-old Apaa Gbafan for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl.
Prosecuting officer, Veronica Shaager, told the court that the defendant broke into the victim’s house and raped her.
The magistrate, Mrs Rose Iorshe adjourned the case to July 6, 2020.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) yesterday complained that rape victims’ parents, faith-based organisations and community leaders frustrate the fight against rape and make it difficult to bring perpetrators to book.
Director-General of the agency, Dame Julie Okah Donli, said this while addressing reporters at a forum to declare the resolutions of a tripartite meeting to combat rape and other sexual and gender-based violence with the Inspector-General of Police and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
She said, “The problem we keep having with rape is that parents are the first people to want to settle these problems within the family. We are saying that it is not a family matter. We are no longer going to accept settlement of rape cases within the family and that is why rapist are getting away with it and carrying out rape with impunity.”
Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, called for a child-friendly justice system to check rape of minors.
He spoke on Tuesday at the board’s programme to mark the International Day of the African Child.
Speaking on the theme: “Access to Child-Friendly Justice System in Africa” Alawiye-King said for minors to get justice, the process of accosting perpetrators must be age-appropriate, speedy, and meet the child’s needs.”
