Juliana Francis
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre has expressed displeasure over the failure of the Imo State Police Command to arrest three men, who gang-raped a minor at church, months after the incident.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, in a press statement, has raised some concerns on the issue, calling on the Police to expedite action to ensure effective investigation, arrest, and prosecution of the suspects and others involved in shielding the perpetrators and compounding felony in this case.
He was worried that a month after the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) gave clear directives for the arrest of the perpetrator, no arrest had been made.
According to Nwanguma, the head of the investigation team confirmed that the team had asked the local division to assist them in arresting the suspects and to inform them to come and move them, but this has not happened.
“He also complained that the mother of the victim has yet to bring her daughter for her statement to be obtained. She was also asked to bring along the medical report obtained from Aboh Mbaise General Hospital regarding the medical examination conducted on her daughter following the sexual violence,” said Nwanguma.
RULAAC is particularly concerned about the fate that this sexual abuse imposes on the girl, the trauma of her experience, the effects on her physical and psychological well-being, and her future.
Nwanguma noted: “We believe that this may not be the first time the culprits would have committed similar heinous acts of sexual violence against women and girls who may not want to speak out because of shame and other cultural inhibitions. Letting them get away with this crime would be to embolden them to remain threats to society.
“Those who throw money around to shield culprits of such heinous crimes are not only compounding felonies but are also enabling crimes. Any member of the victim’s family who succumbs to pressure to ‘settle’ a case of rape and defilement would be culpable for compounding felony.
“Failure by the police to effectively investigate this case to prosecute the culprits and their enablers will amount to failing an innocent brutalised girl and her poor family and community. There is no report or indication of police demanding or receiving money in this case to carry out an investigation. However, the inability of the girl’s family to provide money to support the police investigation should not be a barrier to her getting the justice she deserves.”
Nwanguma recalled that on December 9, 2023, the Apostolic Church Amumara, in Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA Imo State, held its convention, which lasted beyond midnight into the early hours of the next day.
Some young girls who attended the convention decided to stay back inside the church until dawn before going home as they considered it unsafe to go home during those wee hours.
One of the girls, 16 years old as of the date, became a victim of a gang rape by three men who were among those engaged by the church as security guards during the convention.
Ms. Chinwe, the distraught mother of the girl, from Eziala Amumara narrated in a detailed voice note, how she had asked her daughter and another girl, her daughter’s friend, both of whom attended the convention together, to stay back in the church for safety if it was too late for them to return home after the church program.
Nwanguma said: “Ironically, the church precinct considered a haven turned out to be a zone of danger for the girls who had attended the church’s program. By Ms Chinwe’s own account, one of the church security guards identified simply as ‘Ibu’ from Obibi village, came and asked her daughter to leave the church and go home.
“The girl told her that her mother asked her and her friend to stay back in the church until dawn because it would be unsafe for them to go home at that very odd hour. She said ‘Ibu’ insisted her daughter must go and then came up with the story that the youth chairman of Obibi (the village where the church is located) was coming with the police to arrest her.
“The girl asked ‘Ibu’ what offence she had committed, which he did not say and ordered her at gunpoint to follow him to a safe place. Gripped by fear, the helpless girl followed ‘Ibu’ who ended up taking her to an unoccupied building nearby where he and two other men – three men altogether – gang-raped her for many hours leaving her thoroughly abused and bruised physically and emotionally.”
According to the girl’s mother, her daughter returned home that morning, ‘looking weak, in pain, crying and bleeding’, and narrated her horrific ordeal in the hands of the three beasts.
She said she immediately dashed out to Obibi village to confront ‘Ibu’ whom she knows and to report the incident to the village council. She said upon arrival, she met a gathering of the village members in a meeting, and Ibu was there.
She narrated in tears, the shattering story of her daughter’s agonizing experience, and the amazed villagers questioned ‘Ibu’ why he committed such a grave abomination. She said ‘Ibu’ asked for her forgiveness and blamed it on the devil.
She left and went to report the incident to a joint security patrol team that was stationed around the church. She also called the youth president of the community, identified as Toniga, who arrived and persuaded her not to take the matter to the police but to allow him and other youths to ‘settle’ the matter. Meanwhile, she said she informed her brother living in Abuja, who incidented the matter at Ezinihitte Police Division.
She said the youth president (Toniga), whom she later realized was friends with the culprits, called her hours later and asked her to meet him and others, including one Chibuenyi Nwachukwu at a local bar. Chibuenyi Nwachukwu is from the same Obibi village as the culprits who also are his employees.
She said when she arrived at the bar, she met the three rapists among others. Toniga and Chibuenyi asked the three rapists to kneel and apologise to her and they did. She said they then asked her to withdraw the case from the police and that Chibuenyi promised to raise some money to give her to treat her daughter.
She said she refused and insisted that she wanted a proper police investigation of the incident, considering the severity of the physical and psychological injury inflicted on the girl.
Seeing that she was insistent on pursuing the matter with the police, Chibuenyi and Toniga took her aside and subtly threatened her by asking her to accept money and abandon the case ‘for her life and her daughter’s life’.
She said the threat instilled fear in her, and considering that she had nobody to back her, she grudgingly accepted to withdraw the case from the police. They gave her some money ostensibly to treat her daughter. But the condition of the girl remains a cause for concern.
When RULAAC received information about this troubling incident through the community’s chief security officer (CSO), Mr. Ikechukwu Inyama, and contacted the woman, she narrated the chilling story of her daughter’s ordeal in the hands of the three (3) rapists.
She also told of the attempt by the youth president (Toniga), Chibuenyi, and others to intimidate her and compound felony through monetary offers and subtle threats to her life and her daughter’s life. Her account also revealed the tardiness of the Ezinihitte police division in handling the case.
She expressed her willingness to pursue an effective police investigation of the case to ensure that her daughter gets justice and the perpetrators are brought to account.
RULAAC contacted the DPO Ezinihitte Police Division who confirmed that the case of defilement of a minor by three men was reported and still under investigation at his station but added that they had been unable to arrest the suspects.
Subsequent efforts by RULAAC to get feedback from the DPO and his men about the progress of the investigation met a brick wall.
When it became clear that the DPO was bent on compromising the investigation, RULAAC reported the case and the DPO’s conduct to the Commissioner of Police Imo State who summoned the DPO and subsequently transferred him out of the Division.
Ikechukwu Inyama, the chief security officer of the community, who was standing in for the mother of the victim at the local police station reported that the DCO of the Division was unhappy and threatened him for giving information to RULAAC which led to the organization reporting them to the CP, thereby endangering their job.
Following this, Chibuenyi Nwachukwu whom the three rapists are referred to as his boys, and who had been at the centre of efforts to compound felony including shielding the ‘boys’ and offering money to settle the case, accosted Ikechukwu Inyama (the CSO) at a drinking spot in the market square and attacked him accusing him of supporting the victim’s mother in reviving the case after they had agreed with the woman to ‘settle’ it at the police station.
Ikechukwu Inyama reported the case of assault on him by Chibuenyi and others at the local division. But instead of investigating the case, the DPO tutored Chibuenyi (the accused) to write a counter-petition to Zone 9, Umuahia, against the complainant.
The DPO then invited the CSO, and he went to honour the invitation, believing that it was in furtherance of an investigation into his complaint against Chibuenyi for assault. Upon arriving at the division, he was whisked off to Zone 9 Umuahia, where upon arrival, he found out that Chibuenyi had lodged a false complaint of ‘threat to life’ against him. This was a scheme to silence him and stop further investigation into the defilement case pending at the local division.
The activist further said: “When Ikechukwu Inyama informed RULAAC about this unfortunate twist in the matter, RULAAC Director contacted the AIG Zone 9, Umuahia and gave him detailed information about what led to the petition against the CSO and requested him to grant him bail and also order a transfer of the case file from Ezinihitte Police Division to Zone 9, Umuahia which the AIG kindly obliged after making independent findings on the case.
“The AIG Zone 9, Umuahia, based on a formal petition to his office, directed the Crack Team at the Zonal Command to take over the investigation, call for a transfer of the case file from Ezinihitte and arrest the 3 rape/defilement suspects as well as investigate the involvement of others in the crime and attempt to compound a felony. “
