Justice for the victims of gang rape

PENULTIMATE week, a gang of six men  allegedly raped an 18-year-old television station presenter in Lapai, Niger State. According to reports, the presenter was on her way home from the office when she received a phone call from someone she apparently knew. The caller asked her to come to a primary school near the Emir’s Palace in the town and she obliged. However, shortly after entering one of the classrooms where the caller was waiting for her, she became dizzy after being given “something to drink” and then lost consciousness. The outlaws collected her phone, wiped off all the contents and removed the SIM card. They then gang-raped her and left her in a terrible state on the floor of the classroom. According to the founder of her TV station, it was her (the victim’s) mother who informed him of the incident. She was taken to hospital and, happily, she was able to identify one of the attackers, who has since been arrested. Indeed, according to the Niger State Police Public Relations Officer DSP Wasiu Abiodun, two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident.

In yet another incident, some criminals reportedly gang-raped and killed an 18-year-old, Wassa Joel Tuwa, in Yorro Local Government Area of Taraba State. The victim, who had left her family house in Jalingo, the state capital, to visit a nearby village, had taken a market route around Lankaviri to shorten her journey. However, she was gang-raped and killed behind a mountain, as confirmed by an autopsy. It was a little boy who was hawking firewood who discovered her lifeless body by the roadside and ran back to inform his parents of the incident. And in yet another recent incident, six teenagers were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a 19-year-old lady in Anambra West Local Government Area of Anambra State. While interacting with the victim and her parents in her office, the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo, decried the high rate of crime among delinquents and called on parents and guardians to stop indulging their children, adding that the Chukwuma Soludo-led administration would not tolerate any form of crime in the state.

Narrating her ordeal, the victim said: “It all happened when I visited my maternal home in Oramaetiti and was ambushed by a group of boys who took me to a room and took turns in defiling me. Despite my plea, the boys aged did not stop but continued while one of them was filming me during the act.” And the worst part: she was attacked by another set of young men after being rescued by neighbours who heard her screams for help! The felons took their turns on her, threatening to kill her if she put up any resistance.

To say the very least, these are horrendous incidents that must be thoroughly investigated and the suspects, in cases where some are still on the run, fished out and made to have their day in court. If rape is terrible, gang rape is worse; it represents the complete dehumanisation of the victims, who may never recover from the trauma of such incidents. Indeed, unless helped out through medical, psychological and social suppport, the victims may become permanently disconnected from the rest of the society, feeling that they have nothing to live for anymore. These kinds of horrible incidents cause the victims to lose confidence in the society, and there have been cases when victims of (gang) rape committed suicide. It is distressing that young women going about their lawful duties were violated by criminals on the prowl. It is hard to imagine what the victims must be feeling at this moment.

To be sure, it is the height of wickedness for a motley crowd of men to band together and plan such heinous invasions of other people, and it is indeed necessary to ask what these groups of wicked and criminally-minded men hoped to achieve with their heinous acts. What would the criminal sexual violation of the victims do or amount to for them? Certainly, they would not have embarked on such infamy if not for the fact that they have become essentially dehumanised and bereft of any conscience and humanity. These criminals should be arrested before they wreak further havoc on the society. Increasingly, young women and children are being preyed upon by people they trust, as in the case of the journalist violated in Niger State, and the reason such dastardly incidents persist is not difficult to fathom. As we have pointed out time and again, Nigeria is a country where people get away with many heinous crimes because of their social/political connections. Justice, more often than not, is for the highest bidder. Yet, it should be sufficiently clear that hard times lie ahead of the country if the subversion of justice persists.

Fortunately, though, the police are already on the cases mentioned here. We expect them to thoroughly investigate the incidents and  bring all those involved in the perpetration of the heinous crimes to book. Maximum punishment for these criminals will definitely deter others from ever thinking of, or wanting to do the same. We also expect the governments of Niger, Taraba and Anambra states to provide the victims with all the resources they need to be able to cope with the trauma arising from the incidents. Justice demands no less.

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