A four-year-old girl identified only as Choice, has revealed how she was
allegedly raped by the proprietor of her school, Mr. Elias Oyeke.
The
little girl told one of our correspondents that 42-year-old Oyeke, who
is the Proprietor of Victory International School, Mararba, Nasarawa
State, raped her on several occasions and then told her not to tell
anyone or she would get into trouble.
Choice, who is a nursery
one pupil, said Oyeke told her that if her parents found out that she
had lost her virginity, she should tell them that it was her male
colleague who is also four-years-old that was responsible.
The
victim said, “Uncle Elias spread my legs, covered my mouth and told me
to shut up. He will put me on a chair and lap me and he will start
doing it. He will then give me sweets.”
The mother of the
victim, Esther, said she started suspecting something was amiss when her
daughter insisted that she would not allow anyone to bathe her sometime
in February.
Esther said one day, she insisted that she would
bathe her and that was when she discovered severe injuries around
Choice’s private parts.
She said her daughter initially lied that
it was her classmate, Gabriel, that forcefully penetrated her and so
she took her daughter to the school the next day.
While fighting
back tears, Esther said, “I usually dropped my daughter at school around
between 7am and 7.25am, before school resumed proper and I always
handed her over to Mr. Elias. However, after some time, my daughter
started behaving strangely as she prevented me from bathing her.
“I
didn’t know that she was acting under the instructions of Elias. One
day, I insisted that I must bathe her so I forced her legs open and
while I was washing there, she started crying and screaming in pain.
“When
her father got back, I opened her private part and saw that it was wide
and very red. I knew that she could not have sustained such an injury
at home so I took her to the school the next morning to confront Mr.
Elias. Elias began to shake but denied knowledge of what happened.”
Esther said Elias urged her not to tell anyone so as not to tarnish the image of his school and then took them to a pharmacy.
Esther
added, “On getting to the pharmacy, we were told that it was impossible
for a four-year-old boy to do such damage to the girl’s private part.
At the pharmacy, I kept on asking my daughter who injured her but she
would just look at Elias and keep quiet.
“Then, I began to
suspect that he knew something. I then took my daughter away and asked
her to tell me the truth. She finally confessed that it was the school
proprietor that had been raping her.
“Choice said Elias started
by putting his fingers in her vagina. She said anytime it was time for
break, Elias would take her to the school’s backyard, take off her
pants, put her on a chair and start having sex with her. He usually gave
her sweets. After doing it, he cleaned her up with a red handkerchief.”
It was learnt that the victim was subsequently taken to two hospitals where it was confirmed that she had been defiled.
A
copy of the doctor’s report signed by Dr.Nwabueze Daniel of the Nyanya
General Hospital, read in part, “On vaginal examination of the
four-year-old girl, there is a sign of penetration as the hymen is not
intact. It is a case of rape.”
The father of the victim, Pedro, who is a security guard, said he reported the matter at the Mararba Police Station.
He,
however, said he was not satisfied with the manner the police handled
the matter as the suspect was released on bail before he was re-arrested
and taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Lafia.
Speaking
with journalists at his Abuja office, the lawyer of the family, Mr. S. O
Onoja (SAN), called on the police authorities to transfer the case to
the Office of the Inspector-General of Police’s Monitoring Unit, Abuja.
Onoja
said it was unfortunate that policemen could demand money from his
client despite being the victim. He also urged the Nasarawa government
to shut the school immediately.
The Police Public Relation
Officer, Nasarawa state police command, ASP IsmailaUmaruNuman, on Friday
confirmed the incident in a telephone interview.
“The command is
aware of the case and the suspect had since been charged to court for
prosecution and after which he was remanded in Lafia prison,” he added.
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