A
group of non-governmental organizations comprising of child’s rights
organizations, and women and youth groups has condemned in strong terms the
alarming and increasing rate of reported rape of children and general
atmosphere of child abuse in the country.
In
a press statement, the groups including the Africans Unite Against Child Abuse
(AFRUCA-UK), Spaces for Change, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends
of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Media Concern Initiative for Women &
Children (MediaCon), Healing Hearts Foundation, Project Alert on Violence
Against Women and Children, the Charles and Doosurh Abaagu Foundation, and the
Women Environmental Programme (WEP), the Triumphant Foundation for Widows and
Orphans organization and the Next Generation Youth Initiative International (NEGYII)
stressed that the trend had reached an unacceptable level and must be stopped
by all legal means.
The
recent reaction followed the report that a two-year old baby was raped in
Nasarawa State by a police corporal, Anthony Onoja.
‘On
a daily basis, we are bombarded by the abominable news of the rape of innocent
children and hapless girls across the country. When it is not a porn-addicted
14 year-old boy A 14-year-old boy, raping to death a nine-year old in Ikorodu,
Lagos, it is a 35-year-old pastor, Yakubu Izang in Jos, Plateau State defiling
two underage girls entrusted into his care for prayers, or an 18 year –old girl
on an evening errand gang-raped by eight artisans in the Odume Obosi area of
Anambra State, a 47-year-old man, Orire Agidiogun, docked in Lagos for who
allegedly raped a four-year-old child, and now a law-enforcement officer in the
name of Police Corporal Anthony Onoja, committing the most beastly act and
harming an innocent baby, a two-year-old toddler at Kabayi in Nasarawa State.
What this shows is that our beloved country is tending towards anarchy, a
lawless state where the most powerless and most defenseless are harmed without
any repercussion. Clearly, this is unacceptable’, the statement added.
The
group also noted that just like the rape cases, virtually nothing was being
done by the government agencies vested with the responsibility of protecting
children to halt the incessant attacks on children, particularly under-aged
house helps, orphans and indigent children nation-wide. The statement cited
instances including that of an 11-year old house help, Ita Bassey-Eno, who died
after being set ablaze by her guardian, Mrs. Nkese Iroakazi, a nurse a few
months ago in Lagos.
‘From my point of view as a UK based charity, there needs to be more intensive,
strong, prolonged and continuous joint action to help protect Nigerian
children. All it takes is for something terrible to happen to just one child
here in the UK and all hell breaks loose. Heads will roll, people will lose
their jobs, government will be sued, if possible, parliament will hold a major
session, policy changes will happen etc. The situation needs to be similar in
Nigeria… One child is one too many’, says Debbie Ariyo of AFRUKA-UK.
Sophie
Mbanisi, Executive Director of the Healing Heart Foundation says only the
strictest punishment for the culprits would do. ‘This madness against children—
God’s gift to us– just must stop. The evil is increasing by the day because no
“Pharoah” or “Herod” has been made a scapegoat yet, in the real sense of it,
and we must all join hands to put an end to this wickedness,” she said.
‘Nigerian laws are too weak to protect women and girls against rape and defilement, says Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri of Spaces for Change. “The ratification and domestication of the Child Rights Convention has hardly helped to protect women and girls from recurrent sexual violence. We need strong laws that bark and bite, and not just lip-service legal standards that merely conform to the tenets of global formality. Protecting women and young daughters from sexual abuse and violence is a moral and legal obligation that the Nigerian government must take very seriously,” she added.
‘Though
we are aware that Corporal Onoja, the pervert who raped the two-year old, is
currently on trial, we want the trial and eventual conviction to be made public
so as to serve as a deterrent to others. And as many Onojas as are prowling the
country and defiling innocent and defenseless children should be shown the way
to where they belong—the jail’, said Betty Abah of ERA.
Section
31 and 32 of the Child’s Right Act make child rape case a criminal offence
which attracts life imprisonment or 14 years imprisonment.
‘It
does not augur well for our image as a nation when all the international
indices regarding the welfare of children portray us in alarming negatives’,
the statement concluded.
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