At a Christmas party organized by a nursery and primary
school in the Ojodu-Abiodun area of Ogun State last month, a
five-year-old pupil from the school complained that the Father Christmas
dipped a finger in her vagina and blood came out when she went in for
her gift.The matter was reported at a police
station in the area following which the said Father Christmas was
arrested penultimate Friday and later released on bail. He was
thereafter mandated to report to the station last Monday.
A petty trader around the police station who spoke to Sunday Sun however said that
the matter did not involve a Father Christmas, but a Barney brought to
the party by the party organizers hired by the school for the event.
She
explained that it was even the owner of the business that was arrested
and not the culprit as he could not be traced after the incident. She
said that she knew about the matter when she saw a pregnant woman by her
shop (who she claimed was the wife of the man arrested) crying while
the man was detained at the police station.
Although the woman
argued that the man on the run was innocent of the charge, she could not
explain why the said offender disappeared following the report.
It
was her view that the parents of the girl were not telling the whole
truth, as they were alleged to have taken the child to a hospital as far
as Ogba, in Lagos, for test that would ascertain the truth of the
matter.
According to her, they claimed that it was their family
hospital. She believed that the police were in the best position to
decide where the test should have been done.
“I know the man that
was arrested. He runs a party organizing outfit, which the school
hired. When people rent the Barney costume, anybody can then wear it.
When someone rented it in my compound, it was even my son that wore it.
Anybody can wear it. The person who wore the costume during the party
allegedly dipped his finger in the girl’s vagina, and then ran away.
They have not seen him till now,” she explained.
Meanwhile,
another respondent, a woman who lives next door to the school confirmed
the story to Sunday Sun, saying it was actually a man in Father
Christmas costume that committed the offence. The school, a two-storey
building, is adjacent to her house.
She, however, explained that
the parties had settled matter. “They were having the party upstairs
when the thing happened; they have a hall where they hold parties
upstairs. But they have settled it.”
She even assured the
reporter who she believed was an intending patron, that the school was a
very good one. “It is just that one (referring to the incident). I am a
teacher myself, and I can tell you that the school is very good.”