Sikiru M. Jimoh
8 October 2008
Ther rising cases of molestation of women means that the country's development will be delayed much longer, because in most societies women play very pivotal role in balanced development. In urban centres, young girls are vulnerable to all forms of abuses and a case of two yongesters illustrated here shows that more effort needed to tackle one of the most serious menance of our time.
Child molestation is very rampant in Nigeria today with teenage girls flooding urban centres and the Federal Capital Territory vending womanhood for cordials. This trade is responsible for broken homes, late marriage and gross irresponsibility characterizing many husbands in their respective homes. Begging another tool of exploitation is equally an umbrella of rape as in the case of a grey-haired man engaging an abandoned suckling in the Federal Capital Territory.
Any country that gives her women education will develop fast and wipe away ignorance, but it has to begin from individual homes. Illiteracy of a woman spread fast and end an entire family in a state of irrecoverable despair. This observation is drawn from the contributions of observers who read the story of Comfort Dada Isaiah in Daily Trust publication of Friday, August 8, 2008.
Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) - the agency vested with the responsibility of tidying and creating a decent environment for residents of the FCT_ on Wednesday, July 30 found the relatives of thirty-one year old and mentally-retarded Comfort Dada Isaiah who left home at the age of twenty-three after completing her secondary education and wandered from 1999 to 2008. As this was still fresh in the minds of the readers, on Tuesday, September 9, a sixty-nine old man confessed to an allegation of raping a girl of eight years in Garki, Abuja and was handed over to the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command.
Mr Titus Ndawa of investigation department, AEPB told Daily Trust that the man was arrested in Area 10 Garki after committing the crime, and he confessed that he did it.
The unscrupulous element ,one Bello Lamu who is not identified with any deformity claimed to be a beggar and had moved into the Federal Capital Territory holding the victim, an eight years old Lember Akpenpuun in hand.
Mr Leramoh O. Abdul-razaq, Head of Administration, AEPB explained to the commissioner that when the Task Force Team on beggars and hawkers arrested the old man and the eight year old victim in Area 10, the act had already been committed, and it was through close observation after the arrest that Lember was discovered to be a victim of rape. Preliminary investigation revealed that the girl was abandoned by her relations before she fell into the hand of the unscrupulous element. Investigation had it that she is from Nasarawa State. The matter is with the Commissioner of Police for further investigation and appropriate legal action.
These two shocking cases of child molestation and other related abuses are usually discovered by AEPB in their daily arrest of beggars and hawkers in the FCT.
In 1999, Comfort left home after completing her secondary education. The family thought she needed a job and a friend of the family got her a job as house help to a pastor. Owing to the way of life in the churchyard, Comfort later disappeared from the church leaving her belongings "Men of different age grades and young girls were kept in a single room where they lived day and night. What they are doing in that church is not clear to me" she said.
At an age when Comfort was supposed to be under the full care of her parents whose responsibility would have been to tighten their grip on her, the parents loosened their grip and allowed their daughter to fall victim to ritual and indiscriminate sexual activities in an environment hidden under the umbrella of worship. Many teenagers in Comfort's shoes would give in to some immoral activities to survive as we see under-aged children loiter in nooks and corners in the FCT awaiting men to pick them for a night.
Early 2002, a married woman in Maiduguri heeded the advice of her mother and fled her matrimonial home leaving husband and children without divorce. On many occasions she had complained to her mother of inadequate care she received from her husband. The aged mother advised her to leave the man for a while and explore Kano for immeasurable care. After her first visit, she returned to park some of her things to join a man in whose arms she could comfortably lay her entire soul. She saw care and money, but when sickness followed, no amount of money could buy health. Circumstances beyond the control of money forced her out of the city to join her husband and children in Maiduguri.
The cases of teenagers are exceptional. A female child is an asset. Many evil activities such as armed-robbery, murder, theft, hired-killing, house-breaking, jail-breaking, drunkenness rape, war crimes, looting of nations' treasury and other violence-related activities are traced to men who are presumed heads of homes. Without a male child in a family, divorce is staring in the face of a wife. But which is tragic: Having no male child or having a male child who will end in jail?
In Africa and the world abound there is no single woman well-armed with education who has failed to provide education for her children, but there are such men existing in all societies who have taken to philandering and drunkenness as hobbies neglecting matrimonial responsibilities.
Every nation needs to take adequate care of its women to progress and should put their well-being into consideration when making laws. An uneducated wife in a family is an additional burden to the responsible husband who is already engaged with thoughts of the children's education and excellent life-style from means honestly got.
When Comfort was returned home, the younger sister she left at a more tender age was already a university graduate in gainful employment waiting to choose among responsible men. Obviously, while her younger sister Janet was busy in the classroom receiving training that would scare irresponsible men away from her sight, Comfort was left wandering and falling prey to wanton sexual activities with vermin.
Although Comfort knew where her parents were residing, she decided to avoid seeing her mother in particular because, she stated in the letter she wrote while in AEPB custody in Abuja, that her mother was fond of dumping her in the house of one Alfa Siaka Dlaa and finally one brother Stephen M. J. Abere dumped her in the midst of some rascals accommodated in a churchyard in Lagos.
Towards the end of April, 2008, a team of environmental officers of AEPB on patrol found Comfort Dada Isaiah under the over-head bridge at Berger where she had made a home to sleep in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Mr Titus Ndawa, Special Assistant to Director on Security Matters, Investigation and Monitoring, AEPB told Daily Trust that when Comfort was discovered at Berger, she was wearing a black overall garment and it was when she responded to their questions that they knew she was not in perfect state of mind and could tell nothing about herself. She remained in the custody of AEPB for a period of three months during which a staff of the board Mrs Beatrice Shomorin a widow confirmed that she was not pregnant but could not menstruate. The widow equally investigated her root and why she left home and finally came with the report that Comfort's mother, father, sisters, brothers live in Ibilo in Edo State.
On Friday, August 1, the Obejiras arrived AEPB office in Area 3, Garki, Abuja where Comfort identified Mrs Akibayi Isaiah as her mother and greeted her with a smile. Other family members present were Janet her younger sister a university graduate who burst into uncontrolled tears on seeing her sister; the elder brother Stephen M. J. Abere who left her in the custody of the pastor in Lagos was also in attendance, but her father Mr Isaiah was not in attendance because he lost his sight years after the disappearance of Comfort from home.
You could never know that Comfort was mentally retarded as she expressed herself excellently in English and genuflected respectfully hiding her face in the black overall garment often stealing looks at visitors and passers-by, but the heavy stink she wore around her portrayed abnormality.
Before Comfort could make any reasonable statement prayers were observed for her at Family Worship Church at Finance Quarters in Wuye and she disclosed her identity as an Ebira from Okene in Kogi Stat and wrote the address of her parents which the widow used in tracing the parents on Wednesday, July 30.
Mrs Beatrice Shomorin who had an earlier burial arrangement in the west decided to leave earlier in order to carry out the search. Notwithstanding,, she arrived the occasion late due to the search.
"I left the FCT on Wednesday, July 30, but first went to Okene to trace the Isaiah family. When I got there, it was raining heavily and I did not receive any encouraging response to keep on with the search in Okene and the rain impeded my investigation, but I gathered that Comfort is from the Obejira family in Okene now resident in Ibilo.
"I proceeded to Ibilo in Edo State the same day, and with all information at my disposal I was able to trace the Obejiras." she said.
Mrs Shomorin told Daily Trust that the Obejiras had been looking for Comfort for the past eight years when she left pastor in Lagos and the trustee could neither give an account of her whereabouts nor furnish the police with adequate information that would help in tracing their daughter.
When Comfort was relating her eight years experience to the gathering at AEPB in Area 3, she said she left the pastor's house because it was a cluster of young men and young women harvested from all walks across the federation and made to live in the same room. "I cannot explain how I left, but I know that I went there with my belongings, but left there with nothing. What they are doing in that church is not clear to me" she added.
Mr Titus Ndawa who investigated into the experiences of Comfort told her relatives that Comfort answered all his questions, but refused to tell him the number of men who used her while she was in the pastor's house in Lagos.
Mrs Beatrice the widow who received a retirement letter prematurely from the FCT Minister in 1999 said she gathered the courage to carry out the search successfully because she was interested and felt concerned as a mother.
Members of the public who read this story have passed comments with a view to enlighten the public on the need to speed the education of female children.
Speaking on how she left home, Mrs Serifat Oyedele Abesede a teacher in Kaduna said that "The education of a girl needs to be hastened before she starts developing interest in the company of men. Her mother was very careless and had no good advisers by her side. In the case of Lember, the parents should be arrested and brought to book for child trafficking. At the age of eight, many spent heavily on education of their children. Must a jobless woman open her laps for an equally jobless man? What love are jobless couple making? The Commissioner of Police should ensure that the old rascal goes to jail for his mischievous act. " she added."
The teacher emphasised on the significance of education .
Mrs Janet B. Adams resident in Mpape village in the FCT said immediately she read the story, she knew it is a clear case of ritual. Some people commit the crime for spiritual enrichment, but in the case between eight years old Lember and the sixty-nine years old crook hiding under the umbrella of begging, it it a habitual cheating, exploitation, destruction of the under-aged.
"I cannot imagine how some men can take women for granted in this society. Only God knows what they did with her period. The education of a female child should not be delayed. It should be hastened so to enable make her realize the significance of education before she attains nobility."
Mr Yahaya H. Yunusa a teacher said mosques and churches are not clinics and hospitals. This negligence of ethics has led to untimely deaths of uncountable citizens of this country. It is surprising that problems associated with the sense organs are taken to religious leaders, and traditional healers for remedy. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory should strengthen the force of AEPB so that they will be able to handle matters effectively. They should be given the full right to handle serious criminal cases they detected on their own; otherwise cases like this can be buried by the police. They are not to be trusted at all. In the next few days you could see the same beggar on the street.
"In August, 1988, a secondary school student from the western part of the country discovered a whitish covering on the lens of his eye and consulted a traditional healer who ignorantly gave him a mixture from herbs to drop on the eye. As he applied the mixture expecting improvement, situation deteriorated slowly. When he realized the importance of modern medication and contacted a medical doctor, it was too late. Medical check-up later, revealed that the eye had been destroyed by the mixture he used earlier the contents of which he knew not. In the surgery that followed, the eye was removed."
Mr Yahaya added that in Nigeria today, cases of child-birth are taken to pastors for prayers and religious beliefs are taking over everything; educated persons and top politicians no longer follow ethics of their professions, but stick firmly to the advice of religious leaders most of whom are dropouts from secondary schools and tertiary institutions who were considered neither unfit to pursue education nor hold offices in government ministries. These categories of people have in turn manoeuvred their ways and taken control of a greater part of the population and eaten deep into the private lives of several families and reduced bread winners to bread consumers of their families through deceit and continual extortion of what should be reserved for matrimonial use. They claim to possess the curative measures to cases of irregular menstrual circle in spite of their zero training along the line and lack of apparatus to diagnose illnesses.
Mrs Hassana Belo Fatima a nurse resident in Deidei in the FCT said that from her six years experience as a nurse, most cases of ill-health get to the hospitals after several consultations of religious leaders and herbalists who worsen the situation before patients finally land in the hospital Patients have, time out of mind, disclosed that the first medical attention they received was given by herbalists and delays were due to spiritual healings. The problem is that the Penal Code Law of the federation is ineffective. Many ex-convicts have turned out be serial convicts.
"Even if Comfort was discovered to be mentally retarded from home, her mother should have taken her to a psychiatric hospital; not a pastor or Alfa Siaka. The need to get her a job was an indication that she was mentally alert, but the suspect is the said Stephen M. J. Abere because his name indicates that he is not a member of the family and he played no vital role in searching for the girl. If Comfort had a serious mother, she should have eaten him raw and forced him to take the lead in searching for her daughter.
Muhammed Bala Ishaq a clothes seller in Kaduna Central Market added there is the need for parents to be vigilant on the movements of female children. The Obejiras proved incapable of shouldering the responsibilities of its children and what happened to Comfort can happen to any child who feel insecure in the family at the moment. "All the blame goes to the mother. Did she buy the girl?' It is surprising that women who tear each other into pieces over underwear cannot drag such case to court. From 'the way I see the situation, the family must have discovered some abnormalities in Comfort and intentionally thrown away the girl pretending to help her in looking for job. Some families value their daughters that sons because they portray good images of their family outside."
He added that the cost of training a female child is high and their literacy speed development. Although Abuja Environmental Protection Board is doing well in keeping the 'Seat of Power' clean, the territory is expanding daily as construction workers find themselves in a restless situation. The Federal Government should therefore give more powers to AEPB so that the board will be able to handle matters effective.
Women are symbols of speedy development if properly and adequately cultured and trained. They are the main target in child trafficking locally and internationally. Nigeria should implement a law to safeguard the lives of women and strengthen their households to foster development for proper upbringing of future generations.
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