The Punch is reporting that: At Golden
Sharon Nursery and Primary School (formerly Kingdom Sharon), located at Ijaba
area of Ota, Ogun State, an incident occurred on Tuesday, November 26, 2013,
that has created panic in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (not real name).
One of
their twins, four-year-old Lydia (not real name), who attended the school, was
defiled by a female teacher, Olajumoke Oyewole, in a fashion they suspected had
ritualistic intent.
Lydia, who
is a pupil of Nursery One with her twin brother, got home on Tuesday afternoon
and started complaining of a nagging pain in her private part. But things she
later revealed confounded her mother.
Saturday
PUNCH decided
not to reveal the real names of the victim and her parents because of the
nature of the case.
The
mother, who spoke with this correspondent on Thursday at Ota after a visit to
the police station where the accused female teacher had been taken, said after
Lydia came home after school, she began complaining consistently when she
wanted to urinate.
She said,
“I asked her what was wrong and she said, ‘stone.’ I thought she meant that
somebody stoned her and I waved off the matter that she would be alright.
“But when
the pain persisted and she kept complaining, I decided to check why she was
feeling pain there. That was when I discovered a wound on her private part.
“I was
alarmed and I asked her who did that to her. She immediately mentioned Aunty
Jummy (the accused.) I asked what the teacher did to her and she said the lady
dipped her finger in her private part and brought out a stone which she used to
scratch her there.
“The lady
is not her class teacher. She (Oyewole) teaches another class beside my
daughter’s. I did not understand this and I quickly called my daughter’s class
teacher on the phone to help investigate the issue. She said I should come the
following day but I decided to go that same day.
“I
reported the matter to the head of the school and while we were leaving, we
went past the (accused’s) class. My daughter said, ‘Mummy come, this is where
she did it. She sat on that chair and put me on her lap and used the stone.’
She pointed to the teacher’s chair in the classroom. The lady was not around at
the time.”
According
to the woman, who was clearly confused when she spoke with our correspondent,
the way her daughter was defiled was strange. She said she had to take her
daughter to the family clinic to conduct a test on the little girl.
Meanwhile,
she had apprised her husband who is away at work in Benin, Edo State, of the
incident. He instructed her to report the matter to the police as soon as
possible.
“The
doctor examined her and asked me to have a look at my daughter’s private part.
She explained that apart from the wound from which my daughter was bleeding,
her hymen had been torn. The doctor said only a state hospital could give a
report on such test since it was suspected that a crime might have been
committed,” the woman said.
The case
was reported at the Onipanu Police Division, Ota, later.
The police
were said to have taken the little girl to a state hospital nearby, where a
test was done and the same confirmation was made about the defilement of the
girl.
When the
police went to arrest Oyewole, she denied committing any crime and resisted
arrest. But the school owner advised her to go with the police.
A member
of the victim’s family, who did not want the case to be treated with levity,
informed the Children’s Anti-Corruption Initiative, a non-governmental
organisation, concerned with the protection of children’s future.
In company
with this correspondent, CACTI visited Onipanu Police Division to find out how
investigation into the matter was going.
While the
divisional police officer was not available at the time, a divisional crime
officer, said Oyewole had been locked up in a cell.
“The
teacher is in the cell. This is a serious matter that we are still
investigating. We are still working on the case. She will probably be
transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department in Abeokuta soon,” the
police officer said.
While in
the premises of the police station, the accused’s mother, with tears on her
face, approached CACTI’s group and knelt down pleading with them to let the
matter be settled.
But when
asked if she had asked her daughter why she carried out such act on the little
girl, she said she had not asked her.
The
victim’s mother was asked whether there was any possibility that her daughter
might be confused as to who did such a thing to her, she said she considered it
but that it had become clear that it was Oyewole.
“The night
of the incident, we woke her up in the middle of the night just to be sure, we
asked who did it to her, she said, ‘Aunty Jummy’. The following morning, it was
the same answer.
“When we
got to the hospital, the doctors threatened her with injection to say who
really did it. My daughter can faint at the sight of an injection. That is what
she hates most in life. But she repeated the same name.”
CACTI’s
Executive Secretary, Mr. Omololu Akinwande, said there was a high possibility
that the teacher had been sent to perform the act in order to use the girl’s
blood for ritual purpose.
He said,
“What you must note is that the girl is not in the accused teacher’s class. She
is also a twin and the strange object the teacher allegedly used is suspicious.
“We cannot
rule out the possibility that some wicked people had connived with the teacher
to get them something from a twin. This is why this case must not be swept
under the carpet.
“It is
just unfortunate that many schools in Nigeria are no longer safe for children.
Government needs to make it compulsory for schools to put in place CCTV cameras
in order to keep children safe. When people know they are being watched, they
are not likely to try something bad with children in their care.”
Akinwale
insisted that rape in Nigeria had gone beyond sexual desire, adding that many
now indulge in it for ritual purposes.
The phone
number of the proprietor of Golden Sharon Nursery and Primary School was
switched off when an attempt was made to contact her on Thursday.
Saturday
PUNCH
learnt on Friday that members of the accused’s family have sought the help of
community leaders in the area to appeal to the victim’s parentst to drop the
case.
A member
of the victim’s family who did not want to be named, also told this
correspondent that the police at the Onipanu division have been making efforts
to make the parents drop the case.
“They told
the mother that she would be the one paying for the transportation of police
and the accused from Ota to Abeokuta for the duration of the investigation and
anytime they need to go to court. They just want to pressure them into dropping
the case,” the relation said.
But the
spokesperson of the Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, has said
that the police at the division did not have any power to stop the prosecution
of the case.
“I have
been briefed on the case and I have been told the accused is still in custody.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, has directed that the case be
transferred to the state CID. The CID will take over the
investigation of the case and justice will surely be done in the matter,” he
said.
The
police also arrested the proprietor of the school on Friday.
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