Against false s3xual accusations

THERE is a reason victims of s3xual assault increasingly attract public sympathy and empathy, particularly when they are forthcoming with their stories: s3xual assault, often rooted in Nigeria’s patriarchal culture that essentially treats women as men’s possession, comes with deep, sometimes lifelong, pain. It is robbery of an intense, agonising kind. It also, sadly, carries social stigma. The ugly phenomenon of critics—and they are not a few—blaming victims and acting as though they somehow deserved the ugly fate that befell them remains as troubling as ever, even with sustained advocacy by gender activists and human rights organisations against gender-based crimes. In the civilised climes, people accused of perpetrating s3xual assault are almost always immediately stigmatised and do not readily survive the stench of public execration even in cases where they are eventually found to be innocent. Because of social stigma, some victims either withdraw into a shell, refusing to nurture any thought of a healthy relationship, or even take precipitate actions that may result in the loss of their lives. This is why calls for mental health support for victims of s3xual assault continue to gain traction.

It is disturbing that approximately 69.4 percent of adolescents in Nigeria have experienced some form of s3xual violence since age 12, with higher rates among out-of-school adolescents and boys; that only about 23 percent of reported rape cases reach trial, and that fewer than 5 percent of girls who experience s3xual violence actively seek help. It is a no-brainer that s3xual assault victims have to navigate a terrible situation, sometimes all on their own. On the contrary, however, some innocent people get charged with s3xual assault due to the dastardly activities of depraved individuals who weaponise it to get back at, or destroy, them, simply because there has been a disagreement. Recently, the Enugu State police command uncovered one of such heartbreaking cases of false s3xual allegation, confirming the planned prosecution of a woman who had accused her husband of defiling and raping their two daughters. According to a statement by the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Daniel Ndukwe, the suspect had reported the matter to the command’s Emene Police Division, but could not prove her allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

In the course of investigating the case, said Ndukwe, the police interrogated the couple’s eldest child, who confirmed that their father did not commit the offence he was being accused of and that it was their mother who had coached them to lie against him. Investigations, he said, revealed that the periods in 2024 and 2025 during which the suspect claimed the offences occurred were the same times she had travelled alone with all the children to their hometown in Imo State. Commendably, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Mamman Bitrus Giwa, reiterated the command’s commitment to fairness, justice and professionalism in handling all cases, warning that any complainant found to have made false or malicious allegations would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.

Such cases are sadly not new. In 2006, in the United States, three members of the Duke University lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape by a stripper they had hired for a party. The case was later dropped. In 2014, a story about a University of Virginia fraternity gang rape was retracted after it was found to be false.  In 1987, a lady, Tawana Brawley, falsely accused four white men, including police officers, of raping her in upstate New York. The case was investigated and found to be fabricated. Ten years later, one Mary Jordan accused her ex-boyfriend and others of raping her, but later admitted to fabricating the story. In the Elizabeth Smart Case (2002-2005), Elizabeth Smart’s sister, Mary Katherine, falsely accused a neighbour of raping her, but later admitted to fabricating the story. There is also the case of Idowu Ogunkanmi, a Nigerian who was falsely accused of rape in the United Kingdom by a woman named Cynthia Chia. After a nine-year legal battle, the UK High Court cleared him of the charges, found his accuser guilty of malicious harassment, and ordered her to pay £25,000 in damages.

 In another case, a young Nigerian committed suicide after being publicly listed as a rapist by a Twitter user. The accuser later deactivated her account and reportedly failed to provide convincing evidence to back her claim.  In 2003, one Sifiso Shezi was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa based on allegations by his eight-year-old daughter. He had served ten years before his daughter recanted her story, confessing that her mother had coerced her into lying during a custody dispute. In another case in that country, a 26-year-old was wrongfully detained for two months on false rape charges brought by a neighbour’s child. He insisted that he was physically incapable of committing the crime as he had extensive penile damage due to a prior violent attack. Medical evidence confirmed his condition.

It is not hard to see that false accusations are evil. Often, victims of false s3xual allegations suffer immense emotional, psychological and reputational damage even after their innocence has been established. Like the common criminals that they are, the individuals who make false allegations of sexual assault cash in on social disavowal of sexual assault to make their victims suffer untold damage. By so doing, they undermine the sad stories of the real victims, causing the public to be skeptical about their claims. Such victims of sexual assault then experience pain on multiple levels, as their credibility is eroded by the skeptical public, and they are wrongly portrayed as false accusers when, in reality, they are nothing of the sort. In the Enugu case previously referenced, a woman decided to charge her husband with defilement that never occurred, causing social media activists and the general public to launch an offensive against him. She claimed that he had threatened to kill her if she disclosed the alleged defilement, but it was blatant falsehood. The victim tried to assert his innocence, but his voice was drowned by the din of public outrage. And had the police not chosen to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation, his sad fate would have been sealed.

We frown on false allegations of s3xual assault and call on the authorities to ensure thorough prosecution of anyone found to be engaged in such criminality. S3xual assault is too serious to be used as a weapon of destruction. In particular, people who coach children to lie about s3xual assault are setting them up for a life of crime, because such children, once accustomed to fabricating falsehood, may not easily backtrack from the ruinous path. They may destroy themselves and other innocent people through false accusations, causing untold anguish in the society. That is why the authorities must treat false accusers with the same severity associated with their treatment of the real perpetrators of s3xual assault.