“I am married with five grown up kids. I am a bricklayer. I didn’t rape the victim. She walked into my room; I didn’t touch her, let alone rape her. Usually, she comes to my house to play with my children”, he says. “That morning, I didn’t go to work. So when she entered my house, my children were not at home but she was playing. When her mother was calling her name, I answered and told her that her daughter was inside my room”, he added.
“Immediately she came in and carried her away. About thirty minutes later, she came back shouting that I have raped her daughter. If I raped her why wasn’t she crying inside my room”, he asked. The victim’s mother gave her account of the incident, said: “On August 3, i left my baby inside to fetch water within the vicinity. But when i came back, she noticed the baby wasn’t in the room. So she began to call her name to know if she had entered any of her neighbour’s room. It was then that Emmanuel responded and said that she was inside his room”. “After waiting for her to come out of his room, she didn’t. I decided to enter his room. Lo and behold, I saw my daughter on his bed, while Emmanuel’s fingers were inside her vaginal. Immediately, I raised an alarm and then reported the case to Owutu Police Station before they transferred the case to Lagos State Police Command’s gender unit,” she says. According to reports, it was revealed that the medical test conducted on the victim confirmed that there was penetration.
Although the toddler was rushed to Ikorodu General Hospital by her parents but was later taken to Mirabel Centre at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, for further tests to discover the impact of the act on her and also get help afterwards. The world is getting all the more unsafe for kids as they are the most vulnerable to crimes of all age now.
