Rapist teachers

IT seems that the more the media reports cases of defilement and rape, the worse they get. Indeed, it is doubtful that the cases that end up in print or on air represent half of the incidents that actually occur. Cases of suppression are probably rampant, for obvious reasons, especially where the perpetrators are highly connected members of the society dealing with victims who occupy the lower rungs of society. In yet another case of alleged defilement of a child, a teacher, one Gbolahan Osinusi, was arrested by the police in Lagos State last week for serial violations of a minor.

Giving details of the incident, the spokesman of the Lagos State Police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said: “On 30/09/24 at about 1500hrs, a case of defilement/abortion was transferred from Festac Division to the Gender Unit of Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja. The complainant who reported the matter alleged that one Gbolahan Osinusi ‘m’ aged 42, a teacher at a school in Ketu-Epe, Lagos State and also the guardian to the 12-year-old had been having sexual intercourse with her since the survivor was 12 years old till December 2023 when she turned 17. She added further that Gbolahan Osinusi forced the survivor to swear on oath not to tell anyone, else she would die and that he took her severally to a nurse by name Mariam Fatolu for abortion drugs to be administered on her whenever she got pregnant. Hence the complaint. The said Gbolahan Osinusi has been charged to court, on 16/10/24 while the said Mariam is currently admitted for medical attention at the General Hospital, Ketu-Epe. She will be charged to court as soon as possible.”

To be sure, cases of defilement and rape of pupils by teachers abound. In December 2016, detectives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested a 42-year-old teacher, Adenekan Adegboyega, for alleged rape of a two-year-old nursery school pupil. The suspect, a teacher in the employ of Chrisland School, Lagos, who also doubled as the pastor of an undisclosed church, committed the offence while teaching the little girl sex education. In October 2019, Justice Sybil Nwaka of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced the school supervisor to 60 years imprisonment. The judge declared: “This defendant is conscienceless, wicked, an animal, and not fit to walk on the streets.” In 2019, 17-year-old Hassana Ibrahim was allegedly raped by her class teacher simply identified as Umaru. The suspect allegedly lured the victim into his room while returning home from an Arabic night class in Sokoto, Sokoto State. Said Hassana: “After persuading me to follow him home to greet his wife who had just given birth, I responded that the entire class had plans to visit as a group. I didn’t want to go with him without informing my parents, so I wouldn’t be beaten for coming home late. But he insisted that we should go together and I obliged because he promised that we wouldn’t take long.”

In February 2023, a 41-year-old teacher, Chukwu Ndubuisi, was sentenced to life in prison by Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya of the Lagos State High Court. The court found Ndubuisi guilty of raping a six-year-old girl within the premises at the Mind Builders Nursery and Primary School, Omole Phase 11, Lagos, where he taught. Only this month, Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced a head teacher, Benjamin Ogba, to life imprisonment for defiling two underage girls, both seven years old. Soladoye pronounced solemnly: “The convict and his fellow defence witnesses were not truthful and credible in their testimonies during the trial. Their testimonies were a pack of lies and fell asunder like a pack of cards. This serial paedophile, a head teacher, who is expected to teach his students morals, stooped so low and defiled the underage girls. What a shame! This irresponsible and randy teacher, who teaches his students nonsense, should be locked away.”

As the foregoing cases bear out, the depraved teachers who violate the minors placed under their care do not care for anything and anyone, only themselves and their demonic lusts. In the instant case, as in others, what is in ample evidence is criminal betrayal of trust. A teacher is a guardian who is supposed to act as a parent outside of the home front, helping in the educational development of pupils and moulding their character. When such a person of authority chooses to shelve social norms and become an abuser, (s)he is setting up the pupils for a life of agony. It is certainly a terrible thing for parents struggling to see their children through school to discover that they merely delivered their children to their destroyers! It is hard to imagine the depth of despair into which such parents could sink, but the case with the victims themselves is obviously even worse. Unless they receive adequate psychological care, they may end up as socially maladjusted and perennially aggrieved individuals who believe that the world is just a dark, lonely place without any comfort whatsoever. To rupture the psyche of young, impressionable children is one of the worst crimes a teacher can commit. The state must give no quarter.

Just how do you violate a child that you are effectively a parent to? What pleasure is there in violating anyone, let alone a child? Where were the parents of the victim all this while when the alleged abuse took place? The suspect is not just accused of serial defilement but year-long procurements of abortion. This is child molestation and abuse of the worst kind. It is attempted murder writ large. Abortion, except for the purpose of saving the life of the mother, is still illegal in Nigeria, and anyone found to have subjected a child to such ordeal for five harrowing years deserves nothing but the severest sanctions provided for by law. The police should investigate this case thoroughly and ensure that justice is done. The alleged crime is simply too mind-boggling and too horrific to deserve anything less.