- Baby referred to UUTH
- It’s for money ritual, police commissioner alleges
The police in Akwa Ibom State have arrested a 27-year-old man, Michael Akpan, over the alleged rape of an 11-month-old baby, who bled profusely before falling into a coma.
The suspect, a secondary school teacher in Oron, is a relative of the victim’s mother. The incident occurred at Idua Road, Eket, at about 2.30pm last Sunday.
Dan Awunah, who disclosed this to The Point in Uyo, described the incident as bizarre, unheard of and one that must be viewed seriously.
Awunah advised parents, especially mothers, to be wary of people they entrust their girl-child to.
“Just see what a relation could do to an innocent toddler, all in the name of money ritual,” Awunah said.
An witness to the suspect’s arrest, Great Maxy, told our correspondent that the alleged rapist lived in the same compound with the mother of the defiled baby.
Maxy said that the nursing mother had asked Akpan, who is her relative, to keep watch over the baby while she rushed to the nearby market to buy foodstuffs. He added that it was in the process that the suspect carried out the evil act.
Narrating the incident, Maxy said, “I had gone to visit my sister, Pat Akpan, a medical practitioner who owns pharmacies, one of which is located along Okpongkpong Street by Essa-Akpan, Eket LGA.
“On getting there, I noticed that this sad event occurred a bit earlier before my arrival. One Mrs.
Magdalene Ikpe rushed her 11-monthold baby to meet my sister for help, crying that a young man of about 27 years had raped the baby.”
It was gathered that the alleged rapist, Akpan, lived in a family compound where Ikpe also resides.
Maxy added, “She (the child’s mother) left the baby and asked him to look after her at about 2:30pm while she rushed to get foodstuffs at an open market called Urua Nyom Ebe at Afaha-Eket.
“When she returned, she saw her baby in a pool of blood. The young man was apprehended by people on the street while trying to escape.
“He was beaten by those who caught him and when asked why he committed such an abominable act, he said it was ‘the handiwork of the devil’. “The suspect was later taken to the police station at the Oron Divisional Area Command.”
Meanwhile, the defiled baby has been referred to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital for a comprehensive medical treatment.
In a reaction, a lawyer and human rights activist, Kibiat Ikpidungise, advised the family of the victim not to hesitate in taking the matter to court.
According to her, the law frowns at such criminal act and prosecuting the suspect will serve as a deterrent to others in the society.
Ikpidungise said, “Let the matter be charged to court. For instance, in the last one that happened here in Ondo State, which involved a 70-year-old man, who raped a 7-year-old pupil in Akure, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
So, in this case, I think the offender should even bag more than such punishment.
“Defilement is a punishable act; that is why I said it attracts a sentence. But they have to prove that there was a penetration and there was semen found inside the child’s vagina.”
The Lagos State Coordinator of the Child Protection Network, Mrs. Ngozi Okoro, however, noted that, while medical attention waws being given to keep the child alive, the mother should immediately be taken for proper counselling.
She stressed that this was to ensure that the mother does not suffer psychological stress.
“If not well handled, the case may seriously affect the mother’s relationship with people around her. On another hand, the little girl will also need good counselling as she is growing up, so that she won’t be affected later in life,” she said.
Okoro also urged the police not to waste time in charging the suspect to court to pay for his offence.
