on Thursday. She wasn't sobbing because of the sexual attack on her
eight-year-old daughter, Lola (not real name), who was defiled by a
security guard but because she and her daughter are now being
victimised by the police for reporting the case.
"One of the policemen even said to my face 'Like daughter like
mother.' Are they implying my daughter deserved to be sexually
assaulted?" she said.
According to the single mother of two, who sells food at Benson
Junction, Ikorodu, Lagos, it all began on Monday, January 26, 2015
when she sent her daughter on an errand around the area where she
vends food.
She told Saturday PUNCH:
"Usually, at the close of work, I keep the containers I use to sell
food behind a house at the bus stop where I sell food. Sometimes I
send my daughter or her younger brother to take the containers there.
But on that Monday, I was busy with something and sent my daughter
around 7.30pm to
keep the containers there. But I realised she took longer than usual.
"I went to look for her at the house later and Mr. Benjamin (the
security guard, popularly called Baba Ijebu in the area) told me that
she had left a while ago. I saw the containers there."
Adebisi said it was when she turned to leave that she noticed her
daughter coming out of a corner of the house. The mother demanded to
know where her daughter had been but the girl could not give a
satisfactory answer.
"I kept asking her and all she could tell me was that she did not get
back on time becauseBaba Ijebu refused to open the gate on time. I
knew she was lying and even threatened to beat her up," she said.
The girl later told her mother about two instances of sexual assaults
by the same man, who had warned her against telling her mother what he
did.
"She told me that Baba Ijebu dragged her into a corner of the house
and dipped his fingers in her private part. She said that day was the
second time such thing would happen."
But when Adebisi confronted the man, he apologised saying he only had
a sexual encounter with the girl once. The mother later reported the
case at the Ikorodu Police Division, where policemen were drafted to
arrest Benjamin.
The police gave Adebisi a note to the hospital to carry out a test on
her daughter, which she took to the Mirable Centre at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
Adebisi said the case has been drawn out under different excuses by
the police till they finally released Benjamin.
"Now, when Benjamin sees my daughter, he winks and laughs at her. She
always tells me when that happens. The police have told me to forget
about the issue and settle with the man. When I remained adamant, they
started abusing me, blaming me for what happened. One of the policemen
in charge of the case even blamed me for letting him waste money he
should have paid me as settlement on getting a lawyer."
Adebisi accused the police of treating her daughter's case light
because she is poor.
Adebisi explained that even though the report of the test carried out
on her daughter was sent directly by LASUTH staff to protect the
integrity of the report, the police had been blaming her for
disobedience.
"They said I might have forged the test report because I went to
LASUTH even though I was directed to the Ikorodu General Hospital. But
I told them that I went to the teaching hospital because sexual
assault test is free there," she said.
Child Rights Activist, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who now handles the case,
lamented the recurrent cases of sexual assaults in which families of
victims complain about being treated unfairly by the police.
She said:
"The attitude of our policemen to cases of sexual assault is
worrisome. This is a case police authorities need to act fast on
because it does not speak well of their integrity.
"We have reported the matter at the Human Rights Commission Office in
Lagos and just want to get justice for this family. The woman is just
a roadside food v
