A trader, Joy Okhuba,has narrated how her 12-year-old niece was allegedly defiled by a resident in the Ilaje area of Ondo State and is demanding justice for the victim

The 54 years old single mother of one said she has been taking care of her niece since she was two years old and everything was going well with them until a few months ago an unforeseen circumstance stopped made her take Bose from her private school due to unavailability of tuition fees, to a government-owned school.

“Bose is currently preparing to take the common entrance examination to enable her to attend secondary school. A few weeks back, she approached me and advised me to start making puff puff to sell and that she would also hawk to make sales. I considered it after thinking about it for a while because we sincerely need all the help we can get in the house at the moment. Last Friday (June 2, 2023), when she returned from school, I made some puff puff and gave them to her. After 3pm, she came back home to eat but with no sales. After eating, she said she was going to go out again to try to make sales. When it was 6pm, I didn’t see Bose, so I told one of my neighbours going out to please tell her to return home even if she had made no sales.

“At some minutes to 7pm, Bose came in tired and unkempt and while asking what had happened to her and why she was looking unusual, she fainted. I ran to her only to realise that she was bleeding heavily and I became destabilised. Immediately, I took her to a hospital but the medical workers told me that they could not accept her. It was at the second hospital we took her to that she was accepted and treated till she became conscious. I’m not sure that in her current state, she has the mental capacity to take an exam. The man responsible should go and face the court and whatever the verdict the judge gives, he should deal with it.

“Maybe when he gets his punishment, Bose, someone like me and others who are concerned too will be able to have peace from the shock the issue brought to us because no matter how long it is, for someone like Bose who’s the victim in this case, she will continue to live with that trauma that she was defiled by a man when she was little. I’m just so pained that it was my condition that led her to hawk. If not for that, she would not have had to go out of the house and have such a cruel thing done to her.

“We are not the government and we are not the lawmakers. So, I can’t say. Whether it is the death penalty or a jail term, the court will decide whatever he deserves. We are requesting the government to come to our aid and ensure that the culprit is punished for the crime he committed. Also, Bose has a lot of tests and scans that the hospital asked us to do for her, but there’s no way to make that possible for her due to the present economic situation I and my family are in.

“However, if there are good Samaritans that want to help us to give her the medical treatment, we will be glad and it will go a long way in stabilising her from the horrible and vile abuse she had to go through in the hands of that,” she said. (Story adapted from The PUNCH)