It is alarming and pathetic that a 14-year-old girl, Obiamaka Ngozichukwu Orakwe, was reportedly gang-raped to death in her parents’ home at Abule-Ado, Lagos State. The tragic victim, a Junior Secondary School student, was said to have been targeted by “a group of miscreants.” She was alone at home when the rapists struck.
A relative was quoted as saying: “Before the incident happened, she complained that some boys, who smoke Indian hemp in the area, were making advances at her, which she turned down. “
A report said the rapists had jumped over the fence of the house to get to the girl, adding that “they were said to have gagged her, took turns to rape her and, thereafter, abandoned her in a pool of her blood.” By the time her mother rushed back home, prompted by phone calls from her neighbours who had seen the gang jump into the compound, it was too late to save the girl’s life. Mrs. Orakwe said: “When I asked her what happened, she said it was those boys she had told me about. We rushed to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead.”
This girl did not deserve to die in the way she did. What happened to her shouldn’t have happened. It is reassuring that police sources were quoted as saying: ”Efforts are on to arrest the perpetrators of the dastardly act. We will notify the public when this is done.” It is hoped that apprehending the rapists and bringing them to justice will be pursued with maximum seriousness.
Rape is a serious social problem. Lamentably, it would appear that the problem is becoming more problematic, considering recent instances that further highlighted the depth of the rot. For example, a report said last month: ”Five friends, all students of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, and a barber are in trouble after they allegedly raped a female student and recorded the criminal activity to blackmail their victim into silence… State police commissioner Hilda Harrison alleged that the five suspects lured their victim to a place and gang -raped her.”
Also, in May, there was public outrage over the reported rape of a six-month-old baby in Kano State. The gravity of the incident attracted the attention of the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, and the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi II. These high-profile figures unambiguously condemned the rape of baby Khadijat Bashir by 30-year-old Muktakar Muhammad, an extreme paedophile. Mrs. Buhari, who visited the baby at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, on May 6, described the act as inhuman. The Emir of Kano, who visited the hospital before the First Lady, urged security agencies and the state government to ensure that the culprit was lawfully punished.
In another case in point, some secondary school students in Lagos made the headlines for scandalous sexual misbehaviour. On May 3, female students of Falomo Senior High School, who had just finished their final exam, were reportedly targeted by male students of Ireti Grammar School, Ikoyi. Four students of Ireti Grammar School were arrested by the police, prompted by the Lagos State Government. It is disturbing that the actors in this shocking sexual assault drama were secondary school students.
No less a person than the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Adebule, who oversees the state’s education ministry, stressed that “acts of recklessness such as reported in the case under investigation are totally unacceptable and would not be tolerated.”
Rape is unacceptable, and rapists should not go unpunished. The authorities need to send an unmistakable signal that rape will not be tolerated by punishing rapists in order to deter others from engaging in the repugnant act.
