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The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has raised alarm over the incessant rape of young girls and women across the country, saying "the perpetrators of this evil act range from total strangers and hoodlums to law enforcement officers and family members of the victims."
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has raised alarm over the incessant rape of young girls and women across the country, saying "the perpetrators of this evil act range from total strangers and hoodlums to law enforcement officers and family members of the victims."
A statement from the organisation observes that in the past few months, the dailies have been awash with gory tales of how innocent young girls and women were raped. More disturbing is the fact that some of the victims were children under 10. Due to stigmatisation, many rape cases were said to have gone unreported and the perpetrators were neither apprehended nor punished.
CLO cited an incident, which occurred at Adeyemi Street, Ajegunle, Lagos where a teenage girl was sexually abused by her father over a period of twelve months, culminating in an unwanted pregnancy. The 45-year-old man by name Alex John had persuaded his daughter to lay the pregnancy on her boyfriend, but the plot failed when the boyfriend said they had always practised safe sex and insisted on knowing who impregnated her.
The girl's father later subjected her to an abortion at an unknown hospital. This incident was reported in the Saturday Sun, on May 7, 2005. Unfortunately, the mother of the victim was aware that her husband had been sleeping with their daughter, but she decided to keep quiet about it in order to save her marriage.
The statement reads in part: Sometime ago, a three-year old girl named Onyiye was raped by her mother's lover in the Gbeleyi area of Isolo, in Lagos State.
According to a report in the same paper published on October 2, 2004, the little girl was found bleeding in her private part outside her mother's home in Lagos. Unfortunately, her mother failed to report the matter at the police station, and she made every attempt to cover up the perpetrator because of the amorous relationship existing between them.
"The perpetrator was a dismissed Naval Rating who was jobless as at the time of the incident, and was usually left to keep an eye on the victim's mother's shop, while also caring for the girl and her sister whenever their mother went out.