Outrage as DCO asks rapist to marry 14-year-old victim

Juliana Francis

CP. Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu

Children advocates in Lagos State have expressed outrage after the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) of Shogunle Police Station allegedly backed the defilement of a 14-year-old girl.

The DCO reportedly suggested that the over 40-year-old perpetrator should marry the victim to end the case.

The suggestion, which negates the Child Rights Law, has gathered a storm, becoming the focal discussion among social workers and Civil Society Organisations (CLO).

It also attracted the ire of members of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) with social workers demanding that the DCO, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the division and all policemen working at the station, should go for special training on how to handle cases of rape and defilement.

It was learnt that when the ACVPN Secretary, Mr. Ebenezer Omejalile, heard about the marriage proposal between the victim and the perpetrator, he told the DCO that it was absurd.

Thereafter, the DCO allegedly threatened to slap Omejalile, leading to an altercation. The matter had since been brought to the attention of the Area F Commander, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr. John Zongo.

The defilement of the victim was discovered after she went missing on August 16. She was found the following day, looking frail, confused and frightened.

She told her eldest sister, Jennifer, that one of their neighbours, nicknamed Okey Ten Okobo, took her to a hotel, where he laced her food with an unknown substance. She said after eating the food, she couldn’t remember anything afterward. It was, however, discovered that she had been violated by her abductor.

Jennifer reported the matter at the Makinde Police Station. A policewoman, identified as Sergeant Ashiru, took the statement of the victim, but didn’t make an entry because she was hoping to first arrest Okey. But all efforts to arrest him failed. She had been to Okey’s house four times and never once met him. She thinks someone was giving him information, which makes him elusive.

Jennifer alleged that Okey was notorious for defiling young girls in the community after drugging them.

The Gender Unit of the Area F Police Command, which has taken over the case from Shogunle Police Station, is working on the theory that Okey had been taking minors to the hotel and has vowed to raid the hotel.

Meanwhile, while the detectives from the Makinde Police Station were hunting for Okey, Jennifer received a call from the Crime Recorder of Shogunle Police Station, inviting her to the station.

Our reporter spoke with Omejalile, the social worker at the centre of the storm. He explained that when the Shogunle Division invited Jennifer, ACVPN asked her to honour the invitation.

She got to the station and saw the elusive Okey with another man.  The Crime Recorder told her that Okey lodged a complaint that she used a soldier to threaten and beat him up because he refused to cough up N250,000, which she demanded from him, so as to stop pursuing the case.

Omejalile said: “At the station, Jennifer and the survivor stated their own story, leading to the Crime Recorder begging and asking them to forgive and forget. He told Jennifer to take the survivor to a private hospital for medical examination. But he was actually supposed to give them medical paper to go to the government hospital. He also didn’t even obtain a statement from Okey. He did everything wrong!

“Rather, he said the medical test was to check if the survivor was pregnant, and if she was, that Okey would marry and pay her bride price in installment as they were both of Igbo extractions. Jennifer told us that she didn’t agree to it. 

"When I heard about it, I was shocked. An Investigating Police Officer (IPO), who is the Crime Recorder in a division, suggesting child marriage? I called and asked him why he asked the survivor to go to a private hospital for checkup instead of the government hospital? He claimed the survivor and Jennifer came, pleading that they didn’t want to make a case, so he asked them to leave. 

"I told him it was a clear case of abduction and defilement. I told him he needed to charge the case to court and issue the survivor a proper medical paper. We, however, decided to visit the Shogunle Police Station.”

On August 27, Omejalile went with Mrs. Selin Asala of ACVPN, Criminal Justice Officer and Mrs. Helene Iluobe. It was when they got there, they found out that a new DPO, Ogundele, had just resumed and was not even aware of the case. They briefed him.

Omejalile narrated: “When the Crime Recorder was called to tell the DPO about the case, he said the survivor had demanded N250,000 and that when Okey refused to pay, she decided to use a soldier to beat him, also threatening his life. 

"But the DPO was more interested in the threat to life and allegation that a soldier beat up Okey. He threatened to detain the survivor and her two sisters.

“We called Jennifer and asked her if there was any time she used a soldier against Okey, she said no. The DPO said that the survivor and her sisters, who didn’t have any means of income, wanted to make a case with people that had reliable sources of income. He said that by the time they forced them to put down their statements, they would be forced to say they wanted to withdraw the case. He said this right in our presence. I told him that those girls had committed no crime, and that there was no reason to detain them.

“Before we could say more, the DCO came into the office and started ranting. He said Okey and the survivor were lovers and that she had been sleeping around. I asked him why he would say that, that the girl in question was old enough to be his daughter. I reminded him that the girl was a minor and couldn’t give consent. I asked him what if the girl was his daughter, would he condone what Okey did to her? He asked me what was my business in the matter and my interest in the survivor. He then threatened to slap me twice, right in the presence of my colleagues and his DPO. But the DPO didn’t caution him. I dared him to slap me. The Crime Recorder then said he would handcuff me, I told him to go and handcuffed Okey, whom they had let loose.

“The DPO asked us to leave his office. We stepped out and waited until the survivor arrived. The DPO tried to force words into the mouth of the survivor and her sisters, saying they demanded money, but they debunked it.

"The sister had recordings of her conversation with Okey, which she wanted to play to his hearing, but he was not interested.”

Omejalile said that the case made him to realise that the DPO and his lieutenants at the station, absolutely had no knowledge of what child protection means and had no idea the meaning of rape or defilement. When Okey didn’t come to the station as instructed by the DPO, Omejalile and his team left. They would later hear that the DPO detained the survivor and her two sisters.

They were, however, released the same day on the orders of the Zongo.

“On August 28, we went with our legal head and media team to meet the area commander. On Saturday, I got a call from Jennifer, that she saw the Crime Recorder, going into Okey’s house. The area commander had asked them to produce Okey,” said Omejalile.

Before the drama at the DPO’s office, Jennifer alleged that the Crime Recorder had tried to compel her to write another statement, which she refused. She demanded to know what happened to her initial statement.

Okey, knowing fully well that police from Makinde Division were looking for him, ran to Shogunle Division, to lodge a complaint of threat to life and assault against Jennifer.

Omejalile said: “We also found out that the Shogunle Division doesn’t have a Gender Unit. So they are treating cases of sexual violations with levity. If the DCO can threaten to slap me, how much more some Nigerians who do not know their rights.”

Following the complaint, Zongo called on the Officer in Charge of (OC) Human Rights, Area F Command, who took the complaints of ACVPN. She took their statement and equally called the OC Gender Family Support Unit (FSU) Area F Command. Zongo instructed the OC Human Rights to call for the immediate transfer of the case to the Area Command latest by August 31, 2020.

Zongo, while frowning at the conduct of the officers, promised that justice would take its course.

When the Lagos State Police Public Relations (PPRO), Bala Elkana, was contacted via his WhatsApp, he declined comment.

Ironically, Elkana is a member of the ACVPN platform, where discussions concerning the issue have been on for days.