BAUCHI: YOU ARE TOO POOR TO PROSECUTE ME – Alleged rapist of 13-yr-old girl boasts in mother’s presence
BAUCHI:
YOU ARE TOO POOR TO PROSECUTE ME
– Alleged rapist of 13-yr-old girl boasts in mother’s presence
A 13 years old girl, who is a JSS One student at Central Junior Secondary School in Angwan Bakin Kasuwa of Misau local government, Bauchi State is now facing the hardest part of her life yet, after she was allegedly raped and impregnated by an elderly man who was in the habit of giving her N50 to lure her to bed.
Narrating how Aisha Muhammed (not real name), a ‘pure’ water hawker was sexually abused and impregnated by one Mallam Babayo, a tailor in the same local government, Executive Director of the organisation, Mbami Iliya Sabka said, “the victim told us how, on that fateful day, she cried for help but nobody was there to rescue her. He threatened her not to tell anyone, not even her own parents, after which he forced another N50 in her hand to go and buy biscuit for herself.”
“The unsuspecting victim who sold pure water to support her poor parents after school hours, was always invited by the suspect to go on errands to get some of his tailoring materials and whenever she returned, he would always give her a N50 tip. This went on until sometime in mid-December 2018 or thereabout when Babayo took her to an uncompleted building owned by his elder brother, locked the gate, forced her to take off her clothes and abused her sexually. The victim is eight months pregnant and has not registered for ante-natal, worse still, there’s no arrangement in place for the child’s delivery,” he said.
He further told Vanguard that the NGO had already sent a petition to the Commissioner of Police in Bauchi and the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the matter and bring the perpetrator to account for his deeds.
When Vanguard contacted the mother of the victim, Hafsat Muhammed, she corroborated PIDI’s claims and further said she and her family were molested by Babayo who was unwilling to grant them audience whenever they went to confront him with the rape and pregnancy of their teenage daughter.
She said Babayo told them that they were too poor and couldn’t do anything to him.
Her words: “I am not happy about the situation. We went to confront Babayo with the allegations our daughter levelled against him, but he welcomed us with so much disgust and contempt, so much that he said that we’re too poor and couldn’t do anything to him. “I am grateful that people have taken up the case for us, because, honestly I wouldn’t have known what to do. The pregnancy is telling on my daughter especially now that it is in its advanced stage. It is eight months old now and we can’t even feed ourselves let alone prepare for the baby’s arrival,” Hafsat said, as she used her wrapper to wipe tears from her eyes intermittently.
“My daughter is facing the hardest part of her life because of someone’s wickedness.”
While asking for justice for her teenage daughter, Hafsat appealed to the Bauchi State government and well-meaning people to help her with prayers and financial contributions to enable her take care of her daughter and the baby she’s expecting.
“I want justice for my daughter because the person who put us in this situation is walking free on our streets. I also want to ask for assistance from our people-loving governor and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to our aid with their prayers and financial contributions to enable us overcome this dilemma we find ourselves,” she added.
The pale-looking pregnant teenager, obviously burdened by the pregnancy was too weak talk.
Meanwhile, when the alleged rapist, Mallam Babayo,was confronted with the allegation, on discovering that the interviewer was from Vanguard, said “I am not responsible for that pregnancy”, after which he restricted his answers to mono-syllabic words, “Yes” and “No”.
When Vanguard contacted the police to find out if they did receive a petition concerning the alleged rape, the Police Public Relations Officer, Kamal Datti said, “I think the case is over a month now, but I will get back to you”.
Several hours later, the Police was yet to respond even after being told that the report was urgent.
Vanguard gathered that the victim’s father who is physically challenged, depended on the enterprise of his wife and teenage daughter who is now pregnant, for survival.