Monday, February 18, 2019

‘My daughter was raped, private parts wiped with white cloth’

Stanley Ihedigbo
Mr. Ogoma Amaechi has become petrified, following the defilement of his 15-year-old daughter.

According to him, he didn’t know whether to be worried that his little girl had been brutally defiled or the fact that the perpetrator wiped her private parts with white cloth after defiling her. They also video recorded the act.
Amaechi said that his daughter was defiled at Gberige area of Ikorodu, Lagos State. Although it was a single person that violated the victim, but Amaechi insisted it was four men.
He said that while one of them carried out the act, the other three watched.
He said: “The suspects wiped my daughter’s private parts with a white cloth after defiling her. And while she was being defiled, one of them video recorded the act.”
Since the incident, which happened on January 24, Amaechi and his daughter had never been the same.
He mentioned the names of the perpetrators as Doku, Olawale and two others. Two among the four men are blood brothers.
Amaechi added: “My daughter told me that it was only one person that raped her, while others was outside, monitoring the area? When they finished, they wiped her private part with a white cloth and threatened her. They said that if she tells anyone what transpired, she would die within seven days.”
Amaechi noted that out of fear, the victim refused to open up until everyone noticed that she was acting strangely.
“After several efforts, she finally opened up. We were angry with her. She told us that the men threatened to upload the video on the internet,” said Amaechi.
Amaechi, who said that his wife died some months ago, explained that he reported the case at Ijede Police Station. He further said that on the day police came to carry out arrest, the men attacked them, giving room for the prime suspect to escape.
Amaechi said: “The family of the suspect has not shown any concern that their boys raped my daughter. Rather their father had been threatening to deal with me. His grouse was that I reported the matter to the police. He said that I should have come to him. The truth however, is that a policewoman at Ijede Police Station, has been assisting the family of the suspects to frustrate the case. I thank God for the intervention of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO).”
He also disclosed that since he started taking his daughter to hospital, he has noticed a vast improvement in her behaviour. Police had further advised him to take her to Mirabel Centre in Ikeja for counseling.
He noted: “We’ve already taken her to Ijede General Hospital, Ikorodu, where it was confirmed that she was sexually violated. The only we want is justice.” 
Reacting to the case, the Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN), urged the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Zubairu Muazu, to order proper investigation into the case and to ensure arrest of the culprits.
NOPRIN’s national coordinator, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, said that the network received the information and was disturbed.
Nwanguma said: “The suspects also allegedly told the child that if she failed to turn up any other time they invited her for a repeat of the act, they would upload the sex video online and deal with her. The young girl just lost her mother and the family is still in mourning. This act of sexual violence and blackmail by the criminals therefore worsens her pains and trauma.”

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