NIGERIAN GIRL,DABERECHI ANONGAM, CRIES FOR JUSTICE
By
Leo Igwe
Last year, a ten year old girl-Daberechi Anongam- was raped by a university lecturer and an ex-military officer in my village in Mbaise in South East Nigeria. Daberechi, a primary school pupil was invited by the lecturer to help him launder his clothes in his house. And in the course of that, 'Mr Lecturer', forced her into his bedroom and raped her. According to the girl, he gave her a hundred naira at the end of the ordeal.
Daberechi’s mother, Margaret, told me that he started suspecting that something was wrong with the daughter when she noticed that she was urinating too often. That she called her, and after some interrogation, the girl told her that ‘Dee Edward’ as the lecturer is known in the village, raped her. Dee Edward, a father of two and a divorcee with a history of wife battery, is over 50 years of age. He is a part time Fine Arts teacher at Imo State University and a Librarian at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umuahia, also in Eastern Nigeria. A medical test has confirmed that Daberechi was actually ‘defiled’.
The news of the rape started circulating and generating a lot of tension in the community. And in January, a self appointed committee met to look into the case. But the meeting was disrupted by some youths who felt that the so-called community leaders wanted the rapist to escape justice. The trial was abruptly called off. After the incident, the lecturer called in the Police from Zone 9 (in Umuahia). He arrested the girl, the parents, and some elders in the village, and pressed charges against them. All in an effort to obstruct and evade justice. At the time of this writing, the case is before a local court in the area, and will come up for hearing soon.
And in a related development, the person who presided over the village kangaroo trial also invited the police and arrested some members of the community. He has instituted a legal action against them for libel, claiming around 200 million naira worth of damages. Unfortunately most people in the village are too poor and too afraid of going to the police or to the law court.Many people in the village cannot afford the money to eat talk less defending themselves in courts.
Some of them went behind, begged the lecturer who removed their names from the list of the accused. But a few of them including the parents of Daberechi have refused to be cowed and are forging ahead with their defense.
This incident has given me an insight into the kind of oppression, humiliation and exploitation, which the poor, weak and voiceless suffer and endure in the hands of the so-called rich, powerful and privileged in the society. This rape case has made me to understand the pain, agony, trauma and devastations rape victims go through especially when they are young, poor, ignorant and living in rural areas. As in this case, sometimes rape victims do not know their rights. They do not know that rape is a serious crime punishable under the law. For instance the family of Daberechi does not know that this lecturer is a criminal who is on his way to jail.The mother told me that she did not want to take the matter to the police.
That her plan was to go and warn the lecturer to keep off her daughter.
But my thinking is that even if the family of Daberechi wanted to take a legal action against the man who defiled their daughter, one factor would have stopped them- lack of finance. The parents of Daberechi are poor and wretched. The father works in a motor park in Aba in Abia State, where he earns very little income. While the mother tries to take care of their 8 children by doing menial jobs and petty trading in the village. Ordinarily, the family of Daberechi finds it difficult to feed and cater for itself. And since this case started, life has been extremely difficult and excruciating, as the family has to borrow money to bail themselves out at police stations and go to court to answer charges brought against them by someone who raped their daughter. The last time I visited the family I met the father of Daberechi in a very sober mood. He said he was thinking of where he could get some money to travel to Owerri-the state capital- where he was invited to come and make a statement on the case. The plan of the lecturer is to grind this family to a financial halt, and push them further into poverty and bankruptcy. Possibly he wants the family of Daberechi to be indicted, while he would go scot-free.
Since I got knowledge of this very ugly incident I have tried to contact several organizations –Women Rights organizations, civil liberties, human rights and child rights groups, for help. Incidentally most of these organizations are located in Lagos or in the state capitals, very far from the scene of this incident. Some of them do not have the resources to handle the case- to travel down and investigate the matter. So if nothing is done, Daberechi and the family would to left to their own fate.
So I want to use this opportunity to call on well meaning individuals and groups to come to the aid of Daberechi and his family. I want to appeal to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, to protect this girl. There are speculations that the man who raped Daberechi is planning to eliminate her and frustrate the case. I am also calling on the Minister of Justice and the governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim to ensure that this rapist is brought to book.
Daberechi is crying for justice. Her family is yearning-and dying in the search- for justice. All people of conscience in the community are demanding justice. They know that justice has been delayed, and their ultimate hope is that justice will not eventually be denied. Right now there is palpable tension in the village. The rapist and the collaborators are having a field day- arresting, assaulting, detaining and prosecuting with impunity whomever they like. They are flexing financial muscles because they think that money is might, and that might is always right. They think that justice is for sale, and will surely go to them- the highest bidder.
But I think that they are dead wrong. And that sooner or later justice will catch up with them and they would be made to answer for their crimes.
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