Joe Effiong, Uyo
Fifty years ago, perpetrators of despicable crimes here would have walked into the evil forest on self-exile even before the communities would rise against them. But that is no more. It is everybody to himself or herself.
About a month ago, the director of public prosecution (DPP) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Joseph Umoren, shocked the audience. It was at a two-day partnership workshop and book presentation on gender based violence and women with disabilities in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.
He disclosed how an unnamed man was incarcerated for sleeping with three of his daughters and lusting after the fourth with zeal and wild emotions. She was left with no choice than to open up when the father made life very unbearable to her because of her refusal to join the family orgy:
“A greater number of cases I have handled from the police is on defilement and rape while armed robbery is even on the decline. I usually ask if the culprits are suffering from some form of insanity.”
But if he thought the incarceration of the man who turned his daughters into lover girls would deter others from appropriating or misappropriating the forbidden fruits of their daughters, then he was dead wrong. While the man was in prison, his colleagues were busy initiating their daughters into compulsory incest, sometimes as far as impregnating them and serially aborting the pregnancies with impunity.
One Sunday from Ikot Ideng in Ibesikpo Asutan even concocted a perfect excuse for sleeping with his two daughters age 13 and nine years. He wanted to test whether his manhood was till functioning or whether it had atrophied due to lack use after his wife divorced him and ran to Port Harcourt, Rivers State. What a better way to test manhood than from the home front in a threesome orgy with own underage daughters?
Now in detention at the police headquarters, Ikot Akpanabia, Sunday rationalised: “My wife left me some years ago because of some family issues and relocated to Rivers State. I have been the only one taking care of my daughters. I just wanted to test if my manhood was still functional using my daughters.”
He could have continued the manhood testing if jealousy never pushed him to beat up his elder daughter for daring to have another man as a boyfriend. To add insult to injury, the man even came to him and introduced himself as the girl’s boyfriend.
Sunday went berserk and beat up his daughter to pulp. It was only then the he realised that the girl was too young to sleep with a man.
On this list also is Apostle Bassey, presiding pastor of a “living” church in Uyo. He was arrested on November 7, 2019, for practicing “sex-for-school-fees” with his 20-year-old daughter, with active connivance of the mother.
The daughter said her father started having sexual intercourse with her at the age of 13. The continuous sexual assault led her to become pregnant on three different occasions. The pregnancies were aborted by her mother.
She revealed that the first time her father defiled her was in the church vestry. He threatened to place a curse on her if she dared tell anyone about his escapes. She said for her to get school fees or any care from the father, she must be prepared to open her legs for him.
Another pastor, Anwanga also of a “living” church, Uyo, improved on his pastor-colleague’s record to defile his 10-year-old stepdaughter. In fact, police said he “turned the girl left in his care, into a sex machine.”
Then the laity took over from the clergy. That is where 46-year old Nsikan came in. The police picked him up onOctober 28, 2019, for having unlawful carnal knowledge of a 12-year-old girl. He had sent on errand to buy him cigarettes only to turn round, dragged the girl into his room and raped her.
In his confessional statement, he claimed he did it under the influence of alcohol.
From the way pedophiles and rapists are going, 12-year olds are becoming too old to make love to.
One Iniobong was arrested on November 9, 2019, for defiling a two-year-old girl, daughter of his girlfriend from a previous marriage. The poor girl has been hospitalised.
Umoh claimed he was a prophet. He was arrested on November 14, 2019, for defiling a 15-year-old girl. Police said investigation revealed that the suspect was fond of luring unsuspecting female students to his house and defiling them.
Defiling the underage is not entirely a men’s affair. Sometimes wives join husbands to execute the package for their selfish interest. That was the case of Etuk and his wife of Ikot Akpa Eshiet, Onna Local Government. They were arrested on November 7, 2019, for conspiracy and defilement.
The wife was said have forced an underage orphan, against her wish, to be sleeping with her husband with the intent of having children for them. However, the more the husband slept with the girl, the more negative the results became until the girl got tired and raised the alarm, which led to the couple’s arrest.
And talking raising a child through another woman, two septuagenarians in police detention are still arguing the paternity of an unborn child in the womb of a 14-year-old girl whom both took turns to sleep with.
One of them said he picked the girl in the market square, took her to his house to become his wife. But his friend would sneak in to sleep with her.
“I did not rape the girl. She is my wife. I saw her in a village market, I talked to her and she agreed to follow me to my house and be my wife. But it was my friend who always came to have sex with her each time I went out.” The one claiming to be the real husband protested.
The girl was taken to Family Enhancement and Youths Reorientation Project (FEYReP), run by wife of the governor, Martha Udom Emmanuel. Police said they were making efforts to trace her family.
State chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr. Ndueso Ekwere, said he could not “comment on such issue of the phone.” When our correspondent offered to meet him, he said he was not feeling very well.
But police called for attitudinal reorientation and urged people to report perpetrators of such dastardly acts to police. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), MacDon Odiko: said; “Moral bankruptcy is what is causing all these acts. As a people we need to take morality in society very serious.
“For us in Akwa Ibom State Police Command, we take fight against rape, defilement and gender based violence serious. Some of the suspects are in our custody, some charged to court, some under investigation while some have been convicted by the court.”