Juliana Francis
Policemen attached to the Moshallashi Police Station, Egbeda/Idimu, Lagos State Police Command, have arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly defiling the seven years old daughter of his neighbour for over seven months.
The survivor’s mom would not have known that her daughter had been defiled but for the whisper of another neighbour.
The neighbour had noticed the perpetrator’s fixation on the child and decided to keep a vigilant watch. She would also later tell the mother of the survivor, that the perpetrator was a serial rapist.
The neighbour told the survivor’s mom that the perpetrator had done a similar thing to her two daughters
The vigilant neighbour was alleged to have caught the perpetrator touching the child.
It was also alleged that the perpetrator used to take underage girls into his room. He was also said to have been married four times.
The survivor’s mom explained that due to the hours she leaves and returns home, it was pretty much difficult to know what was happening to her little girl.
She said: “I used to leave home by 4:am to sell food. I leave them at home to prepare for school and when they return from school, they come to the shop to join me. I usually leave them with their 14 years older brother. One day my neighbour said I should ask my daughter, who used to put a hand into her bumbum. I asked my neighbour if my daughter told her anything, and she said no. I finally asked my daughter, and she told me that the man used to take her into the kitchen and put his hand on her private part. She told me that it has been happening since we moved into the compound, which was in May 2022. This means it has been happening for about seven months now.”
The distraught mother added that the perpetrator, after violating her daughter will tell her not to tell anyone or he would beat her.
It was also gathered that sometimes he would go to the survivor’s apartment and to distract her 14 years old elder brother, he would send him on errands.
The Executive Director of Child Rights Foundation, Ms. Esther Ekwem, a human rights activist, who has been fighting for justice for the survivor, said: “A lot of parents are careless. The mom leaves home at 4:am, when then does she has time to attend to the children? Parents should sit up when it comes to their children. The man comes when the survivor’s mom is not around, he would then takes the child to the kitchen upstairs and violates her. It has been going on for a long time; not once, not twice. My advice to parents is that no matter the issue you’re facing, please take care of your children. The law should also make it easier for this kind of mom and the survivor to get justice on time. The more defilement and rape cases drag in courts, the more people continue to lose interest in going to court or seeking justice.”
