Rape: Any Solution In Sight?

By Modupe Akinloye

A four-year-old rape victim

Tolulope (not real name) was invited by her sister, Bunmi, to come and help her when she had her first child.

A couple of months later, Tolulope was rudely woken up in the dead of night only to discover her sister’s husband on her.

Before she knew what was happening, the man had had his way. Tolulope could not conceal this horror from her sister and this led to the break-up of the marriage.

This was a case of rape that was not reported to the law enforcement agency and was kept away from the media, because of the marital relationship between the alleged rapist and his victim. The incidence of rape has reached an alarming rate across the country.

The First Lady of Niger State, Hajiya Jummai Aliyu, worried by the upsurge in the number of rape cases reported in the state, had petitioned the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, over the issue which particularly involved underage girls in Suleja, a border town between Niger State and the Federal Capital Territory. She said the phenomenon had increased to a point that the state government could no longer handle it alone and, therefore, needed the intervention of the National Assembly through legislation.

Recalling a pathetic case of rape reported in the state, she said, “The latest and most practical of such menace happened on July 9, 2007 when a 45-year-old man raped a girl of nine years, who is a primary three pupil.

“And right now, the girl is still in physical pain as a result of injury inflicted on her (private parts) because her parents cannot afford to pay for her medical treatment and the man who was responsible could not foot the bill thereby putting the life and the future of the girl in jeopardy.”

In Bauchi State, a 25-year-old herdsman, Mallam Ade Adebo, was sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia court for raping two teenage girls at Kurya Village in Tairo Local Government Area of the state on March 23, this year.

In a related development, the Lagos State government apprehended two suspected rapists who specialised in raping secondary schools female students.

The Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr. Lanre Balogun, paraded the suspect, Mr. Godswill Amaje, a 27-year-old barber from Kogi State, and Lafia Samson, a 25-year-old man from Bayelsa State, before newsmen. They were arrested at the Ikeja Senior High School. He also recalled that the arrest was the third in the series.

The Commissioner stated that a case was recorded at CMS Grammar School, Bariga, where some intruders invaded and raped some female students.

Similarly in Benue State, the police command arrested a suspected rapist, Tope Ojo, who was reported to have raped a five-year-old girl. The father of the girl narrated how his daughter complained of serious pains in her private parts and on close examination, he discovered that there was a kind of penetration which had caused her internal injuries. The little girl was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi for treatment.

In Plateau State, Alhaji Isa Hassan, was paraded before newsmen as a notorious rapist who specialised in raping underage girls. He was alleged to have lured Khadijat Ibrahim, six years old and Fatima Sulim Sulaiman, a seven-year-old girl, into a store within his premises with sweets and biscuits and was caught fingering the private parts of the two girls simultaneously.

And in Osun State, a 17-year-old secondary school student, Miss Tosin Ajakaiye, who is a relation of a supporter of the Action Congress in Ilesha, was allegedly abducted and raped in the house of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain where she was severely tortured and brutalised.

She also disclosed that her pubic hair was plucked out and force down her throat. This case attracted wide condemnation, particularly from women non-governmental organisations which called for a probe.

An Abuja Magistrates’ Court sentenced a 25-year-old man, Danjuma Joseph, to three years imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl. Joseph had pleaded guilty to the charge. He told the court that he gave the girl some money and requested to have sexual intercourse with her and she consented immediately.

“I didn’t take her to my house. I raped her right in her guardian’s apartment,” Joseph told the court.

The victim told the court that she could not bear the pain and decided to tell her father. “I refused to do but he forced me and I cried so much. Joseph pleaded that I should not tell my father but I said no, I must tell him,” she said. Magistrate Vera Tom-Tukura sentenced the accused to three years imprisonment.

Kaduna State Police Command also arrested and detained a 14-year-old, Amos Ishiyaku, for allegedly raping a three-year-old girl at Sabon Tasha, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis.

The incident happened at about 6.00p.m. after Amos of Zonkwa Street Sabon Tasha lured the girl to an uncompleted building and had sexual intercourse with her.

It was Esther’s scream that alerted neighbours who rushed to the scene and caught the suspect in the act. The little girl lost consciousness and was rushed to Gwamma Awan General Hospital at Kakuri for medical attention but doctors could not revive her as she later died.

In Anambra State, Governor Peter Obi had to direct all security agencies in the state to launch a manhunt for rapists who had been terrorising young school girls in some secondary schools in the state.

The governor lamented that most of the 13 victims of rape so far reported had tested HIV positive.

In Kebbi State, the Commissioner for Police paraded a 35-year-old man, Mallam Haruna Nabo, alias Maiyukake, who raped a nine-year-old girl, Miss Basirat Usman.

The girl was treated at Wasagu General Hospital owing to the injury she sustained in the process. The suspect told journalists that he committed the offence in error. An eight-year-old-girl, Ada, disclosed that Charles, 40, had slept with her several times.

In her words: “Anytime I went to his house, he would touch my buttock. I would tell him to leave me. He would carry me to his bed, take off my pants and insert his penis into my private parts. I always felt pain. After everything, he would give me N5 to buy something. He said, if I told my aunt, that I would die.”

But she later opened up to her aunt after she fell sick and no medication could heal her. Charles was later found to be HIV positive. In an attempt to seek justice, Ada’s aunt sought the intervention of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) founded by Deaconess Olufemi Kayode. She lodged a complaint at a police station but rather than get justice, the police allegedly asked for money repeatedly under one pretence or the other. They later allowed the suspect to walk home free.

The 65-year-old suspect, Alhaji Isa Hassan

An investigation by the Pretoria-based Good Health Institute shows that over 53,000 children and 10,000 women are raped in South Africa every year. South Africa, has the highest rate of rape in the world. It is a rapist paradise. In South Africa, rape is diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder precipitated by many years of apartheid and violence against blacks. It is now a case of transferred aggression to children and women by black South African men.

It has also been discovered that not only underage girls are raped; lunatics and animals are not left out of this ugly trend. Men of shady character who want to get rich at all cost even sleep with female lunatics and imbeciles in some cases as part of the ritual process to actualise their dreams.

An 18-year-old butcher, Abdullahi Idris, was reported to have had sex with a sheep at the Chanchaga abattoir in Niger State which resulted in the death of the animal. His bestiality was condemned by a Chief Magistrate in Minna, Alhaji Yunusa Kutigi, who described Idris’ behaviour as unbecoming of a normal human being. The convict was given 30 strokes of the cane, and an option of fine of N4,000 in lieu of three-month imprisonment.

There are three categories of rape; namely, date rape, gang rape and marital rape. Date or acquaintance rape is forced or unwanted sexual intercourse with an opposite sex known to you. Although most people think rape is always committed by strangers especially at night, investigation revealed that rape can be committed by people known or close to the victim.

Gang rape occurs when a victim is sexually assaulted by more than one person. This type of rape tends to take place where there are pre-existing male bonds, such as in athletic teams, in fraternities, and within military units.

According to a study, “Gang rape tends to include more alcohol and drug use, fewer weapons, more night attacks, less victim resistance and more severe phychological outcomes than individual rapes.”

Marital rape occurs anytime a wife is made to have sex with her husband against her will. Women who are victims of marital rape tend to be victims of verbal and physical abuse from their spouses. Others believe the abuse was the fault of the victim for not satisfying her husband sexually as she should.

Marital rapes are under-reported and take place more often than most people think. Perhaps, it's not even common in the African setting because the norm is that a man could take on his wife except she’s incapacitated. Marital rape, therefore, is alien to the African society but common in Europe, as a result of socio-political setting.

According to Mr. A. J. Aquah, headteacher of His Grace Kiddies Centre, Ososami, Ring Road, Ibadan, rape is a serious crime which the society should assist the government to curb. Rapists molest and sometimes kill their innocent victims after the nefarious activities. They simply rape to satisfy their selfish sexual need at that particular time.

He is of the opinion that lack of adequate parental background, poor influence, indecent dressing by girls and ladies, environmental influence, carefree attitude of some parents leading to neglect of wayward children, poverty forcing parents to allow their children to hawk some items, are the fundamental causes of rape in the society.

To Prof. B. Femi Onadeko of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, rape, abroad, is a very grievous offence. Anybody, male or female, who rapes a young girl or woman has psychological defects and needs psychiatric treatment to discourage future attacks by the culprits involved. Rapists should not only be punished but given thorough counselling by psychiatrists.

According to a female lawyer, Bunmi Ogunsanya, the offence of rape can be traced back to the pre-colonial era. Different regions and sub-regions had different forms of punishments – excommunication, execution, public whipping and stoning, among others.