It is trite to see one of two rape cases or reports these days in our daily newspapers. The rape issue has taken a dangerous dimension. Earlier than now, it was the armed robbers that broke into people’s houses in broad daylight, and night and raped all the women .
They carried out these wicked, and nefarious acts at gunpoint. When it pleased them, the victim was allowed to live. But in some cases, the increase in the adrenalin that runs through their blood veins influence them to unleash mayhem. The armed robbers as lawless as the hard drugs they ingest as stimulants and energisers to embark on this unholy adventure do not limit their raping spree to homes. The bushes, express-roads, that crisscross the lengths and breadth of this country have been made theater of the absurd especially Lagos-Benin Express way to the Eastern Nigeria. A few years ago, close to Okada wonderland on Benin –Lagos road, these dare devil robbers stopped a bus in broad daylight coming to Lagos from the East and ordered everyone on board to disembark. After they searched and collected money of course, and other valuables, the passengers heaved sighs of relief living in utter illusion that their ordeal was over. However, little did the women in that bus know that they had another hard price to pay to the men of the underworld. The next line of action was raping all the women married or single. It came to a point when the next woman they were to rape had her husband around, and the man instantly lost consciousness and slumped at the moment these demons descended on his wife in his presence. I do not think any man with body and soul and who loves his wife could withstand this horrendous, terrible, callous, and ugly sight orchestrated by the armed robbers.
In the recent times, sex escapades have shifted to father against daughter, brother and sister, cousin and cousin and the very adult and little girls. I witnessed one incident in a village in Isiala Mbano LGA primary school, September, 2016, where a headmaster who should be in his 60s, messed up little children in the same school he was employed to manage by the Imo State government. Since the school was close to my house, I noticed that he closed late daily. I did not give in to any suspicion because as once a civil servant, I knew that officers at that level work late occasionally to clear the heap of files on their tables. It never occurred to me that this man who greeted me humbly was in for mischief until God arrested him that fateful afternoon with a baby of eight years he fondled and warned her not to leak his secret. The immaculate heart of this baby could not allow her to bow to his threat as she led the cat out of the bag by reporting to her mother. The woman could not stomach this mayhem on her daughter as she took her to the school and pounced on the headmaster drawing the attention of passers-by including my humble self. On interrogation, this man confessed to have committed the crime. The young girl alleged that it was not only her and that other younger and older girls were caught in the headmaster’s web and dragnet.
Cletus Azubuike, writes from Imo State