Imagine For instance as a parent, your four-year-old daughter comes home telling you an “uncle” in the neighbourhood took her to his room, made her lie down, removed her clothes, made attempt at penetration, before ejaculating all over her?
This is the nightmare Emeka Okafor (not real name) has been living with since July 30, 2010, when his second child and only daughter recounted how earlier that day, while playing around his wife’s shop on Shamura Street in Oshodi, a suburb of Lagos, a 22-year-old man, Onyedikachi Samuel, lured her into his room nearby in the pretext of wanting to give her “something”.
“I had just come back from work after picking them from the shop when my daughter called me and said ‘Uncle Onye put his wiwi in my ansarot and urinated on me.” Three times I asked her what do you mean. And each time, she repeated the same thing. At that, I melted. This was precisely by 8pm on that Friday,” said Mr. Okafor.
By “urinating”, she meant ejaculating. Mr. Okafor then took her into his room, inspected her, and in his words, “I could see traces of well cleaned sperm on her body.” The little girl said the man she called “uncle” gave her milk and told her he would beat her if she revealed their “secret”, in an attempt to cover his act.
Mustering the little sanity left in him, Mr. Okafor that same night reported the case at the Makinde Police Station, where officers interviewed his daughter and asked her to take them to the crime scene and identify her abuser.
Shocked beyond words “I didn’t know the boy in question. My daughter took them to his room where we met his step-mother who said her son had gone for night vigil. But outside the Boy’s Quarters where he lives, he emerged and my daughter pointed at him. In his presence she repeated what he did to her and he was arrested,” Mr. Okafor said.
At the station, Mr. Samuel denied having any carnal knowledge of her. But according to Mr. Okafor, he accepted taking Miss Okafor into his room and offering her milk, and asking her not to tell anyone because he had taken the milk without the consent of his step-mother.
Mr. Samuel was eventually charged for indecent assault at the Igbehin-Adun Magistrate Court 15, Oshodi, on August 2, 2010 where he pleaded not guilty. He met the court’s bail conditions of N200,000 and two sureties before the scheduled hearing of his case on August 16.
Efforts to reach Mr. Samuel failed as his elder brother and step-mother denied access to him. But a man who introduced himself as a human rights lawyer, Bello Hassan, working with Strong Towers Chambers, said Mr. Samuel is the one being persecuted. He couldn’t, however, explain why a four-year-old would make such allegations against his client.
“I don’t know why. I can’t attest to the veracity of their claims but my client is aggrieved because I know the other party has gone to great lengths to report this matter to several places. What is unknown is more than what is known. The court will decide. I won’t speak because the case is in court,” said Mr. Hassan.
But on August 16, the case was adjourned to October 18. The reason advanced was that the judiciary was on recess.
On October 18, it was deferred to November 8, as the magistrate was said to be indisposed. The case was again postponed to November 25 as Mr. Okafor was told the magistrate was attending a seminar.
Frustrated, Mr. Okafor took his case to Media Concern Initiative for women and children. The non-governmental organisation offered the family trauma management free of charge and also notified on their behalf, the Lagos State Social Welfare Service, the Department of Public Prosecution and the Office of the Public Defender, which gives free legal services.
“The case is in an open court when it should be in a family court, and this is a major concern because open courts are still handling cases of children. So we need the court to sit, for a motion to be moved to transfer the case to the family court. This is especially important to avoid the child becoming more traumatised,” said Princess Olufemi-Kayode, Media Concern’s executive director..
A haunting trauma
For the Okafor family, however, four months after, the alleged abuse is still fresh in their memory. Mr. Okafor says he has since stopped his children from referring to non-relatives as “uncle” as this connotation sends a wrong signal to children to believe strangers are family. He says he is fighting for his children and as many others his action will save from becoming the next victims.
“For months she kept asking ‘why did Uncle Onye urinate on me?’. All I could reply her is don’t mind him, he’s just a stupid boy. What else can I tell her? And each time I brought her to court, she would ask ‘Daddy why are we in court?’,” said Mr. Okafor.
“There are so many women out there, why an under-aged who doesn’t even know the difference between one and two. I can’t let it go because if nothing is done he will not know the gravity of what he has done. Will he not do it to other people’s children? I only have two kids and that is my only daughter. My reason for living is for them, so if I can’t defend them, then my life is worthless,” lamented Mr. Okafor.
