Four-year-old Rebecca (not real name) has lost her voice following
several sexual assaults on her by her 37-year-old father, identified as
Ademola, She has not been able to talk for the past few weeks.
Her mother explained to Saturday PUNCH how her husband of 14 years had been molesting their daughter.
Blessed with four children; three girls, including a set of twins, and a
boy, she reminisced about how they used to live as one (happy) family
in the Igando area of Lagos before things took a grim turn and she
caught her husband committing one of the most gruesome crimes against
their second daughter – sexual assault.
She noted that apart from having sexual intercourse with the little girl
on several occasions, she had caught her husband inserting his finger
into her private part more than once, all of which had traumatised
Rebecca and made her a shadow of her real self.
The unfortunate incident seems to be tearing the family further apart as
she has not only moved out of the house; she has vowed never to return,
whilst accusing her husband of being diabolical.
She began, “It started in 2013 when I suddenly woke up one night and saw
my husband removing the panties of my daughter. It was in the midnight.
I wanted to shout but I wanted to see what he was up to. So, I
pretended as if I didn’t see him because the room was relatively dark.“When he pulled down her pant, he looked around and when he felt
convinced that everyone was deep asleep, he stood up and moved to where
the girl was and dipped his hand in her private part. I screamed.“To say I was shocked was to say the least. He was shocked too because
he didn’t know anyone was watching, so he quickly stood up, pulled up
his trousers and started beating me.”
According to Folake, the experience she had that night was enough for
her to leave his house, but she said she had to stay because she was
already pregnant for him at the time.
She continued, “He beat me that night such that blood came out of my
body. I didn’t even know I was pregnant until that night and the
pregnancy was about two months old. I ran away from him for some time
and I told my relatives. But I had to go back because of the pregnancy
and that was when I had a set of twins for him.”
To Folake, her husband had turned a new leaf and would never do such a
despicable act again, but unknown to her, other things had been going on
without her knowledge. She said the straw that broke the camel’s back
happened on July 17, 2015 when she caught him molesting her daughter
again the same way he did before.
With her eyes soaked in tears, she said, “I thought he had stopped until
the night of July 17, 2015 around 1am. It was a Friday. Rebecca was
sleeping beside me but I saw him stand up, he carried the girl to the
other side of the bed. He didn’t know I was awake. I had wanted to shout
but I wanted to know what he was up to again. So, he removed his
trousers, turned his back at me and crawled to where Rebecca was lying.
“He didn’t know I was looking at him. He pulled down her panties and
started inserting his finger in her private part again. I thought I was
dreaming. I screamed and continued shouting. He was shocked and couldn’t
talk. He was just looking. Then, he went back to sleep.
“The following morning, I challenged him why he was doing that to his
own child. I know he is diabolical, so I told him if his plan was to use
my daughter for anything evil, he would not prosper. That was what got
him angry and he started beating me. He said he would kill me. Then, my
other children started crying and shouting, and he didn’t stop until one
of our neighbours intervened.
“The following day, I went to the church to report to the shepherd of
the church he was attending, Celestial Church of Christ, somewhere
around Ikotun in Alimosho Local Government. The shepherd was shocked too
but he pleaded with me to exercise patience. Because of the fear of
what he could do to us, we left the house and moved to the church and we
kept sleeping there.”
Folake explained that her estranged husband, who is a motor mechanic in
Ikotun area, came to the church, beat her and forcefully took away their
17-month-old twins, whom she was still breastfeeding, noting that the
two girls had been in his custody since then.
Her seven-year-old boy, identified simply as Seun, who appeared
sharp-minded, told our correspondent that he used to see his father on
top of his sister, maintaining that he had caught him twice in the act
of putting his hand “under” his sister. He explained that his father
used to rub his hands all over Rebecca’s body but he barely knew what he
was up to.
Disturbed by the incident, Folake said she reported the assault at the
Igando Police Station and to the Executive Director, Esther Child Rights
Foundation, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who had helped to monitor the case with
the police. Folake added that some of the policemen in the station even
laughed at her when they heard about the case.
Ogwu told Saturday PUNCH that it would be in the interest of all if
justice was done on the matter, saying she would follow the matter to
its conclusion.
She added, “We have involved the National Human Rights Commission,
Office of the Public Defender and the Lagos State Ministry of Justice in
the case so as to ensure justice. It is increasingly becoming important
for parents to pay due attention to their children to guard them
against assault.”
Even though a test conducted on the girl at the Mirabel Sexual Assault
Referral Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja,
Lagos, confirmed that the girl had been assaulted and her hymen broken,
Folake noted that to her dismay, Ademola had been released on bail by
the police, and that the police in Igando had been foot-dragging in
taking the case to court.
Recounting how bad she had been battered and assaulted by the husband,
Folake noted that her worry was that the man who had done both spiritual
and psychological damage to her little daughter should was about to go
scot free.
“This girl’s private part has almost become rotten and as young as she
is, her breast is already coming out, and she limps occasionally. I can
never entrust my children into his hands and that is why I’m worried
about the twins that are with him. They are also girls. I don’t want him
to molest them too.“He had afflicted us with charm but we have been set
free. The two children in school have been very retarded, coupled with
the fact that Rebecca has not been talking until she did twice just two
months ago. And since then, she has stopped again. She just doesn’t talk
and she urinates frequently. She should be in Nursery One now but she
seems not to be coping. Even her teachers are complaining she had become
a recluse and she keeps urinating all the time.”
Meanwhile, when Saturday PUNCH contacted Ademola over the allegations
levelled against him by his wife and son, he denied, saying, his wife
was looking for ways to move out of his house, thus, she had to “cook up
lies against him.”
He added, “She is lying against me. I didn’t do any of those things they
were saying. She has seen someone else she wants to marry and that was
why she left the house.”
The Divisional Police Officer, Igando Police Station, Mr. Segun
Fagbohun, told Saturday PUNCH that he had transferred Ademola and the
case to the State Criminal Investigation Department at Yaba for further
investigation.