Akowonjo area of Lagos, Mr. Ganiyu Sani, has allegedly raped a seven-year-old
girl, Blessing, for
ritual purposes.
According to the civil servant mother of the victim, on Monday, August 17,
2015, when she got back from work and was having dinner with her children,
Blessings started to touch her crotch and complain of pain.
with her. I thought she was referring to her lower abdomen and believed it must
be stomach ache. But she insisted that it was her private part.
shook her head. I asked if
someone hit her there while she was playing with other
children in the neighbourhood, she said no. I started suspecting there was
something bigger than what she was telling me.
she told me about what Baba did. I could not contain my anger. I was shocked,
angry and sad at the same time that such an old man could do such a thing to my
daughter. My daughter had no reason to lie.”
Ebonyi State, works in the Eastern part of the country while his wife and the
children live in Lagos because of his wife’s work.He was in the East when he received a call from his wife about what had
happened to their daughter. He told his wife to take a neighbour along to go
and confront Baba, who denied everything immediately.
Baba Sani, a landlord who lives on renting out Danfo buses to commercial bus
drivers, lives just two houses away from Blessing’s parents.
Blessing, an exuberant, fair complexioned girl, was not shy when PUNCH spoke
with her about what Baba Sani did to her.
She explained that the old man usually crossed from his house to fetch water from
a tap beside their house. She said:
fetch water (like he normally does). When he was passing in the front of our
house, he asked me to follow him to come and collect biscuit.
“When I got to Baba’s house, he put off my shoes and carried me to his bed. He
removed my pants and lay on my chest. When I was shouting, he said I should not
shout, that he would give me biscuit and N20.
“When he finished, I saw blood coming out and Baba used a cloth to clean it. He
said I should not tell anybody. He gave me biscuit and N20.”
mother knowing, Baba Sani allegedly called the girl and raped her again the
following day, a Saturday.To dispel doubts about the girl’s allegation, she was asked to explain the
location of Baba Sani’s bedroom inside the building and her description was
found to be exact description when Punch eventually paid Baba Sani a visit.
Their correspondent spoke with Baba Sani in company of the director of Esther
Child Rights Foundation, Esther Ogwu, who the case was initially reported to by
the girl’s parents.
The man, who walked with the gait of someone approaching senility, started off
by saying Blessing’s mother was an acquaintance, even though the girl’s mother
said she had never had reason to speak to him before. Baba Sani said:
ago to lend her N500. She sent her daughter to collect it and I gave it to
them. Later, the girl with her younger sister came to my house that Friday to
ask for money and I gave them N20.
have accused me of. God is my witness. I am just surprised about why I am the
one the girl is accusing of such a thing.”
possibly know where his bedroom was in the house, the old man said he had no
idea.Blessing’s mother said she had many other co-tenants and neighbours and said
she couldn’t have imagined asking Baba Sani to lend her any money.
A test conducted at the Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre at the Lagos
State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, confirmed that the girl was
indeed raped as lacerations on her private part were consistent with sexual
assault.
The case was reported at the Gowon Estate Police Division.
Ogwu explained that she was disappointed that initially the police did not
handle the case as if they were interested in prosecuting the man. She said
rather than charge him to court, they released him from custody despite the fact
that they had got the report of the test conducted on the girl.
The child rights activist said:
pretending that he was insane when he was arrested. Everybody in the
neighbourhood could testify that nothing was wrong with him.
“It should not be too hard to enforce the law in this case. The Child Rights
Act is there. It is unfortunate that the mother of the child did not monitor
her daughter well. There are so many young children in that neighbourhood that
could have been victims of the man.”
Ikeja family court on charges of defilement and child abuse on Monday. He was
remanded in prison custody while the case was adjourned till September 4, 2015.