Ignorance or Cruelness? See How This Aunt Addressed Rapes of 12-Year-Old in Her Custody

A 12-year-old girl who left her widowed mother in Akwa Ibom State and came to Lagos with her aunt, Joy Isong, in search of a better life has recounted how her aunt turned the blind eye after she was raped by her son, Daniel, and a father-of-five who attends her church, Christian Nse.

She told Punch,

“I loved to come to Lagos but I did not want to leave my mother, but my aunty said if I followed her to Lagos, I would be happy. But now, I am so sad I did not know this is the kind of thing I will come and go through here. I just woke up and noticed that a man was lying on top of me. I tried to push him away. I knew him. I had seen him in my aunty’s house a few times.

He is also my aunty’s customer. I tried to push him away from me. But he covered my mouth. Music was playing inside our house then. He had increased the volume and I did not know. He told me not to shout and said he would buy me expensive clothes. I told him I did not want any clothes, but he still raped me as he covered my mouth. When he finished, he told me to go to the bathroom and clean up the blood. Then he opened the door and left.

When my aunty came back, I told her what happened and she saw that I was still bleeding. She told me to go and clean up the blood. She then went out to see the man who raped me (Nse). He asked the man what happened and they went to see their pastor together.”

When they got to the pastor’s house, Nse reportedly admitted raping her, however, instead of reporting to the police, the pastor asked Nse to kneel and prayed fervently for him, asking God to deliver him from the spirit of rape. The matter was then swept under the carpet.

The girl added that her aunt subsequently resorted to teasing her about her ordeal.

“She started laughing at me. She was making jest of me and saying that I would become pregnant for the man. She said when I have the man’s child, I would become his wife. I always cried whenever she said that.

One man on our street later heard about the matter and went to tell the wife of the man (Nse) what happened. The man’s wife then came to my aunty’s house and took me to a hospital. The doctor in the hospital said that I still had some blood inside me that needed to be washed out. After he washed it out, he gave me injection and I was told to go home.”

Unfortunately, few days later, her aunty’s 18-year-old son, Daniel, also allegedly took advantage of her, and like her previous ordeal, she alleged her aunt was not bothered. She said,

“I told him that I would tell his mummy when she came back. I told him that I did not believe that he was an animal because I had always seen him like my own brother. But he just laughed after he had raped me. When my aunty came and I told her, she shouted at me to leave her presence. She said she did not like looking at my face because I am very ugly. She told me to get out.”

The traumatized girl then reported her ordeal to her class teacher who promptly informed the authorities, and she was handed over to the Jeshabel Foundation.

Founder and coordinator of the foundation, Mrs. Favour Benson, said,

“…The girl has been traumatised. She needs to go through a lot of processes to get her confidence back…

We learnt that the doctor, whom the girl was taken to by the rapist’s wife examined her and certified her to be alright even though he was told the girl was raped.The doctor made no attempt to report the case. He should be arrested too.

The most annoying part is that the pastor who should have also reported the matter to the police decided to conduct a deliverance on the rapist as well. After the deliverance, would the trauma of the victim vanish? He should be prosecuted for conspiracy in the crime too because all of them are members of his church. Francis is a member of the church, Christian is a member of the church, the aunty is a member of the church.”

Meanwhile, the girl’s aunt, her son, Daniel, Nse, his wife and the pastor have reportedly been arrested.