…dumps her unconscious body in the bush
- Rapist threatening my life, Police harassing me, my neighbours – Victim’s father
- Family Law Centre intervenes
- Nobody has reported incident to us – Police spokesperson
By Agnes Igwe, Abakaliki
A policeman attached to the Ebonyi State Police Command, Johnson Ajali, has allegedly raped a 13-year-old orphan to an unconscious state.
After committing the alleged crime, Ajali also attempted to dump the unconscious teenager in the bush at night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The policeman, who is a neighbour to the victim’s foster family at their Ishieke residence, allegedly lured the 13-year-old girl, simply identified as Mercy, into his room, where he allegedly raped her.
Ajali allegedly offered the young girl a plate of noodles, suspected to have been laced with a harmful substance, which made her to fall into a deep sleep, before having carnal knowledge of her to his satisfaction.
The alleged crime was disclosed by the Chairman of the Ebonyi State Family Law Centre, Abakaliki, Mrs. Elizabeth Nwali, who also called for a thorough investigation of the alleged crime and prosecution of the policeman.
Nwali said that in his desperate bid to cover up the alleged crime, the policeman attempted to dispose the unconscious body of the orphan in a nearby bush, but he was caught red-handed by some members of the orphan’s foster family, who were troubled about her unusual absence from the house at about 10pm and had already launched a search for her.
VICTIM’S FOSTER FATHER RECOUNTS ORDEAL, ACCUSES POLICE OF SHIELDING ACCUSED PERSONNEL
Confirming the incident, the foster father of the victim, Mr. Iruka Nwovu, said that the unconscious girl was later rushed to the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, where she was revived around 5am the next day before she was treated for the injuries inflicted on her during her alleged rape by the police man.
Nwovu, however, expressed worries that despite the formal report of the incident he lodged with the police, the force had refused to prosecute the suspected officer, who he also accused of threatening him and his other family members.
He claimed that he was even arrested over the matter by the police, who accused him of attacking their personnel, who allegedly raped his teenage foster-daughter, and had to be bailed from detention by somebody else.
The victim’s foster father, therefore, appealed to the Ebonyi State Government, the Federation of Women Lawyers, the Legal Aid Council, corporate bodies and all public-spirited individuals to assist in ensuring that further harm was not done to his family and to guarantee justice for the raped orphan.
Giving an account of the incident and the ordeals of his family in the hands of the police in the state, Nwovu said, “On the 21st day of June this year, when I came back from work, I did not see my wife, children and Mercy. When I inquired, one of my landlord’s children told me that my wife just went to her mother’s house, which is not too far from here, but that Mercy’s whereabouts were unknown.
“So I sent him to go and call my wife for me. But when she came back home, she also said she did not see Mercy. She said she left the girl at home, when she was leaving the house. So, we started to search for her because it was unusual for her not to be home at 8:30pm. I waited for another 20 minutes without seeing Mercy; everywhere was dark. I told my wife to take care of our children and that I must find out where Mercy had gone. So, I took torchlight and began to look for her.
“Because since she started living with us, we had never noticed her engage in such unusual movement, I knew that that small girl couldn’t have gone too far on her own. So, I decided to hang around. I checked our backyard, but she was not there. I went to St. Luke’s Lodge, but the gate was locked. So, I hid in a place to monitor the entire compound and to know the direction she would return from.
“Some few minutes after 10pm, I saw my landlord’s son, Emmanuel, opened that St Luke’s Lodge gate, which was unusual at that time of the day. Remember, I was in a hidden place monitoring everything happening around there. Shortly after he entered, I saw the policeman, Johnson, coming out with him. As they moved out of the gate, I noticed the officer was carrying something like a human being. I kept watching them to understand what was going on.
Nwovu further said, “Then a thought came to me, that that person he was carrying might be the Mercy I was looking for. So, I watched closely. I started following them at a closer range, but unknown to them. So, I saw officer Johnson carrying Mercy to the bush behind our backyard.
“Having noticed that something was actually going on, I flashed my torchlight and shouted at them to stand still. Flashing the light closer, I saw my daughter, Mercy, already on the ground unconscious. So, I held the officer with his belt, asking him what he had done to her. He started begging that it was the devil’s work. I ordered him to carry her up and we now went out of the bush to the front of our house, where I raised the alarm to alert people to come out and see what had happened.
“The people who came out were all surprised at what happened and the identity of the rapist. They started asking him what actually happened and he narrated that he gave her indomie to eat. Then the doctor living beside me asked him what he put in the food. He replied that he did not put anything in the indomie, but that he only called Mercy, gave her the indomie and while she was eating it they were discussing, but that she suddenly fainted. Then they asked him why he went to dump her in the bush.”
The victim’s foster father added, “At that juncture, I couldn’t continue to listen to his rubbish; I snatched Mercy from him, pleaded with another neighbour, who has a tricycle and we rushed the unconscious girl to the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. We were already going, but we had a second thought and we went back to take the policeman along with us. When we got to the hospital, they told us to go and write a statement with the police. So, we went to Kpirikpiri Police station and made a statement. Before that, they locked the policeman in a cell and gave us another policeman, who assisted us to take the girl to FETHA 2 that night.
“So, to the glory of God, the girl regained consciousness around 5am the following morning in the hospital. There was a test the doctor asked us to conduct, but the people that would have conducted it were not around that night. So, they collected the specimen and asked us to go home and come back later for the result. The following day when I went for it, I got a call from the police station asking about Mercy. I told them she was now conscious, but that there were some tests the doctor asked us to conduct. Then the caller said that their DPO was not around to give us the money with which to pay for the tests but that I should source for funds to ensure she recovered fully. Still worried about that, I suddenly got another call that the police were now arresting people in my house and the surroundings, instead of prosecuting their colleague who was caught red handed in the evil act. I then became more confused.
“Consequently, I wrote a petition to the state police commissioner and all the innocent people arrested were later released. But from time to time, they would come and arrest people in my house, even on a Sunday.
“Because of the way the police were handling the matter, I reported the case to the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs. After some time when I did not see any meaningful action from them, I now reported to the Family Law Center here.
“I want government to look into this matter to protect the rights of the little girl. The policeman is not above Nigerian laws, he should be prosecuted. Another problem is that the police are threatening me. They arrest innocent people everytime and ask me to come and settle the matter before they would be released. Yesterday, they even arrested me and accused me of taking the laws in my hands by inflicting injury on the rapist policeman. I told them I did not beat him, that I was even the one that saved him from being lynched by the angry mob that night. After everything, I had to call someone to come and bail me out.”
WE’RE NOT AWARE OF INCIDENT- EBONYI POLICE
But the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Loveth Odah, told our correspondent that the command had yet to receive any report about the alleged rape of the teenager by the policeman from anyone.
Efforts to hear directly from the victim was not successful as at press time.
