*Putting paedophiles in
check
In this concluding
part, JULIANA FRANCIS offers tips on how to prevent sexual assault on minors
 |
| ...another child raped |
Sexual assault on
minors, according to a psychological perspective, could be a human nature.
According to a
psychologist, Mr. Nathaniel Ayodeji, teachers are human beings like others and
there are certain things that are common to human beings as a biological and
psychological being.
He said: “As a
biological being, there is this need for sex; it’s part of human. But it can
now be misplaced. Someone can have sexual dysfunction, which is called sexual
disorder or disorder of sexual desires. That can occur, and also, in
personality, we have the need to meet our urge which is tied with expression.
As we grow up, there is need for modification based on the rules and
regulations of our environment.
“First, the mindset is
a natural thing; there will always be a need, an emotional need for a man or a
woman.
“But the control measures
can be a disorder and a problem, the way that person controls the urge is where
the problem can be - either the internal or external cause. The internal causes
are the resource, the desires, the emotional needs, while the external causes
are triggered off by the environment, picture he sees of the females, pictures
of sexual stimulus and many others. Those things are triggered day-by-day in
men and there are also things that trigger women’s desire in the things we see
in our environment.
“When you talk about
rape, rape doesn’t just happen, it is planned. There is a sequence, a process
to it. The step parents or school authorities can take to prevent issues like
this from happening is to teach children about sexual violence and preventions.
It starts from touching the females, inviting them to secret places; and before
you knew it, he indirectly takes the consent of the lady, she plays along, and
then they get to a point which they cannot turn back. So, there is a process to
it, it doesn’t just happen. So, identify that process and absolving it is what
parents and school authorities can do.
“An organisation or
school, where there are ethics, rules and regulations, should have boundaries
and all those things people need to be taught in order to prevent them. The
pupil or student can avoid this situation when they are fully aware of the
nitty-gritty of sexual violence.”
Most times, school
authorities try to shield teachers that commit these violations because they
don’t want scandal to be associated with their schools.
It has also been
discovered that these crimes continue because many parents prefer to have out
of court settlement with perpetrators.
Nigerians are, however,
asking questions on how schools and government can check teachers who
perpetrate these crimes. It has also been discovered that some teachers, accused of defiling pupils, are
merely sacked, not prosecuted.
Moreover, no parameter
or database is put on ground to check if such a teacher would go to another
school to get employment. Also, when some are arraigned and convicted, after
serving out their terms, who monitors them in order to check their paedophilic
activities or ensure they don’t go to another school, get employment and revert
to their old ways of sexually molesting pupils?
When New Telegraph
asked the Director of Basic and Secondary Education, Federal Ministry of
Education, Mr. Jonathan Mbaka, whether the government had data of teachers
found guilty of sexual harassment of pupils, he directed our correspondent to
the ministry’s Director of Press, Mrs. Chinenye Ihuoma.
In her response, Ihuoma
said the government did not play with the matter of harassment at any level, particular
in schools.
She said: “The ministry
does not, in any way, joke with the issue of harassment whether by teachers or
fellow students. But we will be glad if you are following up on any particular
case, so that we can provide you update.
“Meanwhile, on the
question of whether there is an existing databank of culprits of such crimes, I
cannot say now because I just resumed. I shall find out from the appropriate
department and get back to you.”
But as at press time,
Ihuoma was yet to get back to our correspondent.
The Chief Executive
Officer and founder of Media Concern Initiative for Women and Children, Mrs. Princess Olufemi-Kayode, argued that
there should be modus on how teachers were employed. She said that job referral
in Nigeria was poor because employers preferred cheap labour. This means school
authorities often employ teachers without investigating why they left their
former school.
According to her, the
most painful aspect of the whole issue is the perception of some Nigerians
towards sexual violation of kids.
She said: “In our
society, there are people that don’t believe that rape happens. Some people are
living in denial. They think it can’t happen to them or their children. It is
this denial that makes people to stand with highly placed Nigerians who commit
this sort of crime.”
However, there must be
review of child-abuses cases, which also look at having a Child’s Protection
Policy, Olufemi-Kayode suggested.
She added: “It should
entail how teachers are recruited. Everyone should be involved and be a
participant. It should go beyond sexual abuse. The policy should cover the
whole totality of a child. The policy will also make sure schools don’t cover
abuses. Everyone should be trained on all forms of abuses on a child. With such
policy, cooperate organisations should be involved, not only Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs).
“The police, government
and media should also be involved. Who is monitoring schools? The policy should
be reviewed annually. It should cover schools, churches, mosques, cinema, in
fact, anywhere a child is found or frequents. We need to make sure our children are safe at everywhere and at all
time.
“We now have cases of
children molesting children in schools. How do we address that? Lagos State has
the sex offenders’ register, but how many people are on the register? What
database do the police have?
According to her, education
sector needs to up its games in protecting children.
“I have had so many child molestation cases in
public schools. There was a particular case where a teacher abused a student in
a secondary school. The child opened up but the school and the teachers kept
mum. When we tried to find out why the teachers refused to speak out, they said
the man would soon retire, they didn’t want him to lose his retirement
benefits. He had been teaching for over 20 years.
“In another school in
Ikotun, Lagos, a female teacher was discovered to have been ‘fingering’
kindergarten pupils in her class. Her activities were discovered when the
pupils started fingering one another,” Olufemi-Kayode said.
The Coordinator of
Child Protection Network (CPN), Shomolu Local Government, Lagos State, Comrade
Toyin Okanlawon, said such cases in school could be checked by kids being
sensitised to the signal to watch out for when rape was about to be perpetuated
by their teachers. He argued that pupils and students should be taught
self-defence mechanism.
Okanlawon said teachers
found to be involved in such practices should be jailed for life and made to
lose their job benefits.
He said: “Such a
teacher should never be allowed to take up teaching job in Nigeria as a whole.”
The coordinator said
government could monitor paedophiles by setting up and inaugurating CPN in all
the 20 local government areas to curtail activities of paedophiles.
He added: “The CPN members
should be empowered because they are grassroots members of the community and
can be easily reached. The CPN will also monitor the child abuse case from
school down to police station and its logical conclusion.
“Every school should
have a female counsellor, who will also serve as Child Safety Officer. Students
and pupils can confide in such a person because, sometimes, their step-fathers,
uncles, close relatives sexually abuse them.”
Okanlawon said that
parents should always talk with their female wards, never to allow any man
place them on their laps or call them his wife.
He said: “The school
should make sure the students have free access to express themselves to their
counsellor, especially if they need advice. Parents should teach their kids how
to keep away from advances of relatives. Parents should refrain from bathing
with their children or dressing/undressing in their presence. These actions are
some of the influencing factors.”
The Coordinator of
Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), Mrs. Titilola
Vivour-Adeniyi, said that in 2016, the agency had over 40 of such cases.
She said: “Last year,
we had over 40 cases of alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by teachers, school
administrators, bus drivers, teachers, both female and male, not just male
teachers.”
Speaking on female
teachers becoming perpetrators, Vivour-Adeniyi said there was no statistics
covering female teachers’ perpetrators.
She added: “I’m unable
to say if it’s just coming up or people have not been speaking up. Maybe now,
people are speaking up. I don’t think we know the true picture of the case. But
it happens, and people are now speaking about it.”
Vivour-Adeniyi said
that one of the most tragic challenges in fighting such cases was the school
authorities.
According to her,
schools’ first response to such incidents is an attempt to cover up.
She said: “Once
government finds out about it, it takes necessary measures. The relevant state
agencies swing into action; the Ministry of Education gets involved, the
Ministry of Youth and Social Development gets involved, Office of Education and
Quality Assurance, where necessary, gets involved. And of course, the police
get involved. We have representatives of all of these agencies.
“We go into the school
and conduct preliminary investigations, in partnership with the police. Then we
take up the case from there.”
Speaking on how the
government monitors perpetrators who had served out their prison terms, so that
they wouldn’t go to another school to get a teaching job and perpetrate same
crime, Vivour-Adeniyi said: “In Lagos State, we have the sex offenders’
register, which came into existence as a result of an executive order. The sex
offenders’ register is not just a register; it’s a programme that is supposed
to monitor the movement of sex convicts, at the point where they are sentenced;
after they served their sentence and when they are released back into the
community. These convicts have to report to the nearest police station; the way
it’s done overseas.”
According to her, DSVRT
is working with the judiciary, the prisons and the police to solidify the
monitoring.
She added: “We have
names already on the sex offenders’ register, but in terms of monitoring, that
is still being fine-tuned. Ideally, when a sex convict is released back into
the community, he should go to the nearest police station to report himself and
if he is going out of the jurisdiction, he should also report at the nearest
police station in that jurisdiction. That is how it works, but then, there is
the issue of data and statistics. How are we keeping records? Lagos State may
have records, but another state may not have records. There is need for all
states to be in synergy. It is not operational now. But once it is operational,
it will make our job easier.
“There is no loophole;
it is just the execution as I said. It is not enough for Lagos State to have a
monitoring programme. If such a teacher goes to another jurisdiction, we don’t
have control over what Ogun or Bayelsa state does. It is left for other states
to replicate what we have in Lagos State. It is when they have the mechanism
and the structure in place, then we can synergise, but at the moment, that is
not there.”
Vivour-Adeniyi, who
said all child abuse cases, infuriated her, said: “When a parent is dropping
his/her child in school, the parent wants to believe that is a safe place. It is
supposed to be a place where the child will receive education. The parent
expects the child to be safe pending when he returns to pick that child. And
then the parent heard that the place, where the child was supposed to be safe,
was the place he or she was abused. It is heart-breaking!
“There was a case,
where a two-year-old girl was sexually abused by a female teacher with a spoon.
She used a spoon several times on the child. That case beats everybody’s
imagination. We couldn’t even understand why that happened.
“Another case we
handled recently was a 16-year-old student that got defiled by her teacher. In
the process, she got pregnant. She was delivered of a baby a month ago. Of
course, the man is currently in Kirikiri Prison. The Directorate of Public
Prosecution (DPP) is prosecuting. It was in the process of the sexual assault,
she became pregnant. Fortunately for her, she has a good support structure, so
at least she has gone back to school.”
Vivour-Adeniyi said
that on December 16, 2016, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode ratified the first ever
Lagos State Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. The policy, basically, is
a written document that states measures that institutions, child-centred
institutions, must put in place to ensure children are safe in their
environment and what to do when the situations of abuse arise.
She said: “We have that
policy; but what we are doing now is implementation. It is not enough to have
the policy. We have to ensure that schools, any centre that has to do with
children, schools, recreational centres, mosques, churches and so on, have the
child protection policy. As government, we don’t want to keep on responding; we
have to safeguard. It is good to protect children, but it is better to
safeguard. There are already measures in place in terms of recruitment. You
want to recruit somebody to serve as your security man, have you done
background check? Do you know if this person is a predator? Those are some of
the measures the policy put in place. In terms of training, our teachers need
to know how to detect signs of child that has been abused.
“Even if they perceive
that a child is being abused, what do they do? Aside from that, all institutions
are mandated to train their staff in safeguarding and child protection twice a
year. We ensure that to a minimum level, children are safeguarded in their
facilities, both public and private, because the executive member oblige to all
child-centred institutions in the state.”
According to
Vivour-Adeniyi, DSVRT is engaging parents through the Parent-Teacher
Associations (PTAs), churches and mosques.
She added: “We are
using the media as well to help us reach out to parents. The PTAs, especially
in schools, have a very big say over how their children are taking care of. It
is very important for us to engage them. So far, we have been doing that. When
we engage in PTA meetings, we inform parents on how to detect signs of child
abuse and what they should do. We tell them how to report, how to respond to a
child’s complaint that he or she is being sexually assaulted. There are some
key words that go a long way to telling if that child will speak more: I
believe you. It is not your fault. I trust you. I will help you. You know,
those key words are so crucial.
“We have had parents
that would come and say the girl told her once, but she did not know how to
handle the situation, so she just shut the child up. Imagine if she had given
her those key words: I will sort it out. It is no problem; you will see that
that child would have been more encouraged to speak.”
Asked of the punishment
government metes out to schools that attempt to cover such atrocities,
Vivour-Adeniyi said: “The Ministry of Education will shut down the school;
probably temporarily, pending investigation. The Ministry of Education is
empowered to do that, all schools are under the ministry, public and private.
There is a private department in the ministry and obviously, there is a
department that takes care of public schools.
“When an offence is
committed on the premises, the school is also liable for negligence, breach of
duty and care. In fact, it is an offense if the school knows about it and tries
to cover it. The school can incur both civil and criminal liabilities.”
Asked if
students/pupils being sexually violated by teachers in school are on the
increase, Vivour-Adeniyi responded: “What the statistics say is that there is
an increase in reporting, that does not necessarily means that there is an
increase in the commission of these offenses. It just means that there is an
increase in reporting; I believe that it is good. For us in Lagos State, I
believe there are three major reasons for this. One, there is increased zero
tolerance to child abuse. Nobody wants to hear that a child is being abused.
Two, people are now more aware of the different services that are available,
the different doors of justice that they can be accessed.
“Thirdly, there is a
political way to fight this, at the highest helm of affairs. Everybody has
joined the move to make sure that we remove child abuse out of our society.”
The Chief Executive
Officer of Zenith Intelligence and Security Solutions, Mr. Ethelbert Oney,
said: “Before anybody works with pupil or in schools, he or she must pass
through vetting or profiling. The profiling includes fingerprinting. It means
data has taken place. Any legal person working with children or teenagers in
the United States is bound to take a fingerprint.”
Oney said that it was
almost impossible for an offender to work in schools owing to the existence of
such data.
He added: “However, in
some states, the law varies. In Texas, if an offender commits such crime with a
minor, who is up to 17 years, that person can be convicted, but will be
excluded from the sex offenders’ record. In other states, it may have different
clauses. In general, the act is an indictable federal offence. The difference,
if compared to similar cases in Nigeria, is lack of data. In Nigeria, if an
offender is convicted at Ikeja High Court in Lagos, he/she may relocate to Ogun
State.”
The security expert
said that investigation revealed that Nigeria had no specific vetting system of
employment into schools, irrespective of the level.
He said: “If you visit
any police station and demand a six months’ old record, you will be so
disappointed for the kind of response you will receive unless that case passed
through a court of competent jurisdiction. By the way, how can we have a data,
when all police stations do not have IT department? Our courts still operate
the ancient ways like in 1960 where the court clerk has to write everything
said in the court with pen. In order to curb crimes such as sexual molestation
in our schools, we must first begin to think of data of teachers and
perpetrators.”
An Assistant
Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr. Monday Agbonika, is now the Area Commander,
Ikole Ekiti State. Before now, he was (DPO) Festac, Lagos. He has been
involved in several police reform efforts which include the Model Police
Station Project, Family Support Unit (FSU). He was a member of the DSVRT. He
anchored all police efforts for police team and treated sexual abuse cases, the
team referred, from all over the command. He responds to victims and survivors
on phone, and otherwise.
On September 30, 2016,
the Lagos State Government conferred an award on him, in recognition of his
contributions to the fight against Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
He said: “Children can
be protected by arming them with information. Call it sex education. Depending
on the age, children can be armed with information that will help to protect
them. For instance, from age two to three, the child should know his/her
body.
“Then a classification
of private body parts, which should not be touched by anyone, except mummy.
They shouldn’t allow uncles to place them on their laps. Older children can be
given defence information and taught not to accept drinks from strangers because
it can be drugged. They should have phone numbers to call when in distress.
“Another way of keeping
children safe is by censoring materials that they watch on televisions,
internet, music and friends they keep.”
Agbonika insisted that
teachers should be screened for history of sexual abuses before employing them.
He added: “The sex
offenders’ register is useful in this instance. Schools that shield teachers
because of their reputation or other reasons should be dealt with by the
ministry of education regulatory organ. The ministry regulates conduct of
schools, including the private ones. Such schools can lose their licences
if culpable.”
Teachers,
accused of defiling pupils, are merely sacked, not prosecuted (Quote 1)
We
need to make sure our children are safe at everywhere and at all time (Quote 2)
We
now have cases of children molesting children in schools (Quote 3)
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