•How cradle snatchers violate underage girls in homes, schools, others
•Applause as Lagos court sentences doctor to life jail for defiling 15-year-old wife’s niece
By Henry Umahi
It was a celebrated case. For the period it lasted, all eyes were on the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting in Ikeja.
The matter involved the Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, Dr Olufemi Olaleye, who was accused of defiling his wife’s niece. On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the hammer fell on the popular medical practitioner. With the judgement, a glittering career screeched to a halt.
Justice Rahman Oshodi sentenced him to life imprisonment after he found the medical practitioner guilty of the offence of defilement and sexual penetration of a 15-year-old girl. According to the judge, the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and that all the evidence before the court corroborated that of the victim.
Olaleye was arraigned on two counts which bordered on defilement and sexual assault by penetration of his wife’s niece, preferred against him by the Lagos State Government. He was arraigned on November 30, 2022, and he pleaded not guilty to the offences.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Dr Babajide Martins, had told the court that Olaleye had committed the offences sometime between February 2020 and November 2021. He said the offence took place at No 17, Layi Ogunbambi Close, Maryland, Lagos State.
Olaleye was also accused of forcing the teenager to use her mouth on his male organ. According to the prosecution, the offences committed contravened Sections 137 and 261 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.
During the trial, Olaleye’s wife, Aderemi, told the court that her husband had been sexually abusing her niece during her stay with them, disclosing that he first introduced pornography and oral sex to the victim and he released his semen into
her mouth. According to the mother of two, the episode lasted between March 2020 and July 2021.
Olaleye’s wife, who is the complainant, said on oath: “My lord, on November 27, 2021, my second cousin told my aunty, who is my mother’s sister, that since March 2020, Femi has been sexually 
abusing her and introduced her to pornography. From there, he graduated to oral sex with her, that he does this in different places in the home where there are no cameras.”
Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw, who was present in the court, applauded the judgement. She said: “I want to give kudos to the incorruptible Justice Rahman Oshodi for a detailed judgment.
“He listened attentively throughout the proceedings and left no one in doubt that this judgment is his.
“He saw that there was no remorse in Femi Olaleye and that he would repeat the same offences if let go. I watched Femi’s body language all the time I came to this court and he showed no remorse as he was always shoulder-up.”
The actress also praised the Lagos State Domestic And Sexual Violence Agency for its awareness campaigns and war against sexual offences.
Henshaw advised victims of sexual assault and domestic violence to speak up, so as to eradicate the menace.
In September 2023, the same court also sentenced a 42-year-old Chief Security Officer of a company, Daniel Okon, to life imprisonment for defiling a four-year-old girl.
Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution was able to prove the offence of defilement against the convict without reasonable doubt.
Okon was arraigned on a count of defilement of a minor preferred against him by the state.
The state prosecuting counsel, Olufunke Adegoke, told the court that the convict had unlawful sexual intercourse with the minor. She said that the incident took place at about 11: 30 a.m. on April 21, 2017, in the Aguda Surulere area of state.
The offence, according to her, contravened section 137 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.
Soladoye said: “The evidence of the child was also collaborated with her mother’s testimony and that of the doctor that examined her. What is crucial is for the child to be able to identify the defendant.
“The evidence of PW 2 confirmed that she saw this defendant when he messed with her daughter’s virginity in 2017.
“The mother said she heard a commotion and when she went to check, she discovered that the defendant had messed with her daughter.”
She added that the third prosecution witness, the doctor, testified that there was a vaginal discharge that the hymen was absent and that there was an opening.
She further stated that “the mother of this child should also be blamed for being parentally negligent, leaving her four-year-old daughter to be unattended to.
“This mother has herself to blame. Children are precious and should be treated with tender care.”
“Daniel Okon, having been found guilty, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. You are to have your name registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.”
On October 6, 2023, the news emerged that an 11 year-old-girl (name withheld) has been converted to a sex-slave by a man, his son, a security guard and two others at Umuduruorie, Umudurumezie, in Oriemezie Umueze community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
The victim’s uncle, Chukwudi Ukanwa, disclosed that a 61-year-old man and his 44-year-old son, at different times, defiled the minor without her consent. It was gathered that the victim was left in their care by a relative who had travelled outside the country. The relative was also not aware of the sexual escapade carried out on the girl by the five men.
However, the bubble burst when the uncle of the victim noticed the she had not been responding to treatment for a strange illness, which prompted him to interrogate her.
While Macaulay and his son, Obinna, were immediately nabbed, the three other men who had equally been feasting on the girl were said to be on the run.
The victim’s uncle told Saturday Sun: “When I brought her back home to my place, I noticed that all the drugs I bought for her were not effective. So, I decided to ask her if she was being sexually harassed by anybody. It took her time to confess to me.
“She told me it all began the day Macaulay went to drop her in school. He turned on a film on his phone and asked her to watch. While she was watching, she said he brought out her breast and started suckling.
“That was how he began. Then, one day he asked her if another person had ever touched her before and she told him his son, Obinna, and the others had been doing the same thing to her.”
What can anyone make out of the story of a 40-year-old man, Mohammed Umar, who reportedly confessed to defiling a 12-year old girl after he offered her N1000, but insisted the intercourse was consensual?
Umar, a father of 20 children, allegedly threatened to kill the girl if she disclosed the affair. The incident happened at Gusupan in the Toungo Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
He told the spokesperson for the Adamawa State Police Command, SP Suleiman Nguroje: “She met me in my shop and said she wanted to buy sugar. While we were interacting, she requested for the sum of N2000 to refund to her step-mother. I dashed her N1000. Then she agreed to offer her body to me. After we finished the arrangement, she voluntarily went to where we agreed to meet. I joined her immediately and we had sex.”
But the victim said the suspect was talking gibberish. She accused him of raping her after her father sent her on errand on that fateful day to buy sugar at the shop.
The minor alleged that the suspect sent her to bring a kettle for him from the house and he overpowered her.
She said: “I went and didn’t see the kettle, but while I was returning, he stopped me and dragged me into a nearby room, and raped me.
“He held me by the neck and threatened to slaughter me if I dared open my mouth. He told me that last year he had an issue with my father and they were yet to come to terms.”
Nguroje, who confirmed the incident, said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, after a complaint from the victim’s father. He added that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Afolabi Babatola, had ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to ensure discreet investigation and the prosecution of the suspect if found guilty.
Litany of cases
In December 2022, Chief Magistrate Menenen Poromon of a Magistrate’s court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, remanded a stepfather and four others in Port Harcourt Correctional Centre for allegedly sexually abusing an 11- year-old girl at Buguma, Asari Toru Council of the state.
They are 23-year-old Ebi Danagogo Jack; 22-year-old Fubara George; 20-year-old Precious Omubo Wokoma; 53-year-old Dennis Amaye Lugard and 32-year-old Alalibo Harry.
The suspects, who include the victim’s stepfather, her school class teacher, a pastor of Winners Chapel, Buguma and two area boys were said to have, at different times, sexually abused the minor from age six.
The instances are endless. As someone noted, “it appears the men have turned it into a hobby raping minors.”
Similarly, Justice Sybil Nwaka of a Lagos court once lamented that “incidents of rape have taken a new astronomical dimension in our society. The rate at which men in our society are prowling around, looking for young underage children to defile, is alarming. Children, especially the girl-child, are no longer safe in the custody of uncles, brothers and even fathers. This is sad.”
For the girl-child, these are, certainly, not the best times as many are being ravaged by perverts on the prowl. From the fringe of the north to the south, it is the same story. Status, religion and age do not count in the club of cradle-snatchers.
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2015 said that one in four girls and one in 10 boys had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18, with half experiencing physical violence. Scores of girls in Nigeria experience sexual abuse every day.
On daily bases, fathers are raping daughters, brothers are violating sisters, uncles, teachers, drivers and clerics, among others, are devouring minors under their care. But it is not restricted to Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon.
The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCME) said in 2022, it received 32 million reports of child sexual exploitation and abuse, including 49.4 million images and 37.7 million videos from tech companies.
The question that has been on the lips of many is, in an age where sex is easy and cheap with the availability of hook-up girls and sundry prostitutes, why do some men prefer to have forceful, unlawful carnal knowledge of minors?
A consultant psychiatrist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Peter Ogunnubi, said that for one to fully understand why people engage in rape, it must be noted that sexuality is highly individualised.
Ogunnubi said: “There is what we call disorder of sexual orientation, disorder of sexual desire and many other sexual disorders. They all lie under paraphilia. We need to know what make people get aroused. Some simply have intercourse with inanimate objects (fetishism); some could be homosexuality while others could be minors.
“It is a disorder in psychiatrics when people don’t derive sexual pleasure from people of their age except a minor. Unfortunately, our society is changing to redefine who a minor is in order to accommodate these perpetrators.
“Some people simply believe that if they have sex with a minor, they can become rich. They believe that children possess a great energy needed in their cultic world. As a myth, they say intercourse with children is a source of enormous power needed for their spiritual and financial successes.
“There are other groups who display some kind of anxiety, shyness and inferiority complex so that they cannot approach their peers. Therefore, they see innocent children as prey that they can unleash their sexual aggression unto.
“Having considered all these factors and many more reasons, we can say that such act is a disorder of perception, thinking, judgment and conclusion.”
On its implications on the society, he said: “A child that is raped is traumatised for a long time, if not forever. The child can grow up to develop mental illness, depression and self-guilt, maybe as a result of improper dressing or not being smart enough.
“When such a child marries, her home might suffer. Anytime her husband approaches her for sexual intercourse, she might be having flashbacks. That could make her to become tense during the intercourse, which would lead to dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse).
“Some victims might develop phobia and would never marry because they cannot let go of the past. Some will not marry because they will continue to see men as cruel beasts. The victims could be addicted to substance because their childhood had been taken away from them. It could be worse if the rape results in the birth of a child; the child becomes a living memory of her ugly past.
“It breeds evil in diverse ways. It can make them to lose their self-esteem, ego and feel inferior in the society and they will not be able to contribute their quota to the development of the society.”
He further said: “Researches have shown that those that are abused are two to three times likely to abuse others when they grow up. Just as females are abused as minors so also males are abused. These are some of the vicious circles.”
How can this menace be curbed? Senator Florence Ita-Giwa sometime ago suggested the cutting off of genitals of infant-rapists. She had said: “Those involved shouldn’t be allowed the pleasure of using their organs anymore. That, to me, is the proper way to end this evil in the society.”
