These acts of terror against children

IF certain criminals had their way, Nigerian children would become completely endangered. Criminally betraying the trust reposed in them through filial or neighbourhood bond, these perverted individuals visit the most horrendous assaults on innocent children, killing or maiming them for life. For instance, in an incident that completely defied logic, a man was recently arrested by the police for  allegedly killing his eight-year-old son in the Epe area of Lagos State over a misplaced sewing thread. The details of the incident are too horrific to even imagine. The suspect, a tailor was, on August 5, about to use his sewing thread when he discovered that the minor had misplaced it. He then doused the child with petrol in a fit of bestial rage. Seeing the adverse effects of his action on the boy, the suspect reportedly attempted to ease the pain by offering him palm oil to drink. The boy lost consciousness, and residents rushed him to a hospital in the area for medical treatment. But it was too late: he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. A video recording of the suspect kneeling before police officers and residents and answering probing questions, has since gone viral.

Only recently, too,  a medicine store operator allegedly raped a nine-year-old girl, Rumaisa Sadiq, to death in Jaba, Fanisau area of Kano State. According to reports, little Rumaisa had been taken to the ‘chemist’ for malaria treatment by her father. Said, the Kano State Commissioner of Women Affairs, Disabled and Children, Hajia Aisha Saji: “There must be justice for the little girl who lost her life simply because someone chose to display his animalistic instinct on her. In fact, full and quick dispensation of justice in this case is necessary in order to serve as lesson and deterrence to others like this grown up person that carried out this merciless act against an innocent nine year old girl. The Kano State government under the justice-loving Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf will follow up the case in court to a conclusive end.”

And in yet another horrible incident, authorities in Kaduna State had to grapple with the case of a 16-year-old boy who was buried alive following accusations of mobile phone theft in the Gauraki community of Zaria Local Government Area of the state. According to the State Commissioner for the Ministry of Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya (Mrs.) Rabi S. Ibrahim, the victim, Abubakar Aliyu, miraculously survived the ordeal  and had since been rescued. The commissioner stated that the perpetrators of the incident, Yahaya Abdulkadir (20) and Abdul Abdulkadir (17), who are cousins of the victim, had been arrested by the police. “The Ministry is actively monitoring the situation to ensure that justice is served,” she said, adding that a Social Officer from Zaria was dispatched to the scene to evaluate the circumstances and provide necessary support.

To say the very least, these cases of raw, intensely demonic and mindless violence against children and minors present a terrible dimension in the affairs of the Nigerian society. Time and again, there are reports of family members or neighbours subjecting hapless young children and minors to treatments that amount to a crime against humanity, and not even the reported arrest of certain suspects seems to have deterred the dark minds behind these incidents. It is extremely difficult to imagine how in the world a father could set his own child ablaze for any reason at all, let alone such a flimsy reason as a misplaced thread. It is not just the sanity but the entire gamut of the suspect’s existence, including his upbringing, that the incident, dastardly and gory in every purport,  seriously calls into question. It is clear that such individuals have been enabled in their criminal activities by the generally lax law enforcement climate in Nigeria. In all probability, long before now, the suspect had been abusing the poor little boy that now sadly lies in the grave, silenced forever.  Now that the suspect has committed murder,  has he found the thread he was looking for?

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And then, just how do you bury a child for phone theft? Had vigilant neighbours not quickly sprung into action and rescued him, Master Abubakar Aliyu would be dead by now, accused of a crime no one can definitely say he committed. It did not occur to his older relations that even if he was guilty, there were civilised steps to take, such as reporting him to his parents or the police, who would then conduct an investigation to determine whether or not he had a case to answer, even as a juvenile. Pray, even if the child was guilty as charged, is instant death the solution? What kinds of home are the suspects from?

It is distressing to realise that little Rumaisa Sadiq met such a gruesome end at the hands of a man that her father had taken her to for relief after she took ill. She should have been taken to a hospital, and there are nagging questions regarding how and why her father decided to leave her in the company of the alleged rapist and thus gave him the opportunity to rape her to death. If proven to be guilty as charged, people like the suspect in this case deserve to be given the severest punishment provided for under Nigerian law. They are beasts who do not deserve to inhabit the same space with decent people.

Ideally, children need to feel loved by their parents, relations, neighbours and other members of their immediate community. If they make mistakes, as they certainly will, they ought to be corrected gently, not brutalised or killed. There is nothing in Nigerian law that allows anyone to treat children and minors worse than even animals. The fact that children are becoming an endangered species, betrayed by those who should love them, should invite sober reflections by all segments of the Nigerian society. Society is imperilled when criminally minded adults have the latitude to, as it were, make life a living horror for minors, killing them for sport. The reinvention of family values, enlightenment campaigns on the rights of children and, most crucially, swift prosecution of suspects will apparently go a long way in addressing the maltreatment of  children. If they manage to survive their horric ordeals, the victims may carry life-long scars that are embedded in their psyche, and may become maladjusted adults with time. Their oppressors do not deserve to go unpunished. The authorities must ensure that they do not.