By Emmanuel Enebeli
OBIARUKU/Nigeria: The activities of men of grandfather age to defile infants, to satisfy their sexual drive seems to see to sign of abating as another victim of sexual assault on an underage girl, resulting in five months pregnancy had occurred in a community in Delta state.
According to the information before Ndokwa Reporters, which had been confirmed by the state police command, a little girl of 13 years, Ijeoma, got pregnant through the action of one Chief Festus Akinima.
Little Miss Ijeoma Ishima, a 13 year old groundnut hawker and JSS 1 student in one of the Secondary Schools in Obiaruku in Ukwuani Local Government Area of Delta State was a victim of child abuse, one of the gravest ills in today’s Nigeria.
As a child born to parents of poor background Ijeoma, hawk groundnut everyday, as soon as she returns from school.
It was this unfortunate circumstance of little Ijeoma’s life that the Chief took undue advantage of and lured the little innocent girl into unwholesome sexual escapades on several occasions she got pregnant. The pregnancy was five (5) months old when it was discovered by her mother.
Miss Ijeoma’s ordeal started sometime in late July 2018, while walking across the compound of Chief Idele Akinima at Wire Road, Obiaruku.
After patronizing the little girl, Chief Akinima, who developed a lust full interest in her, told her to come and sell groundnuts to him at home everyday because he loves eating groundnuts, unsuspecting infant was ecstatic with joy as she felt that a big customer had placed an order for daily supplies.
It was gathered that Chief Akinima skillfully established a relationship with the small girl by giving her the impression that he was going to empower her through his patronage and that therefore positioned him to have easy access to the girl’s sexuality.
The cat was let out of the bag when Ijeoma’s mother, Mrs. Ishima, started noticing signs of pregnancy in her daughter’s body. According to her, she observed Ijeoma’s enlarged boobs, protruding stomach and weight gain and the signs forced her to question the girl closely before she confessed that she has been having long sessions of unprotected sexual inter-course with the old man.
Mrs. Ishima could not contain the unholy discovery alone. She told her husband who was immediately consumed by anger and immediately, the young man sharpened his cutlass and went after Chief Akinima.
It’s only the good God that saved what could have resulted to jungle justice and murder that fateful day of early January, 2019, as the chief was not at home.
Subsequently, Chief Akinima, knowing that his bedroom evil deeds had been exposed, began under-ground moves to settle the issue with the family of the defiled girl.
It was however, at this point that a human rights activists (names withheld), reported the matter at the Police Station, Obiaruku, who immediately went into action and invited the victim, Ijeoma and her mother to the Station for interrogation.
The victim, at that time, had been pressured by the accused, Chief Akinima and his cohorts to commit an illegal abortion to terminate the pregnancy and she opened up to the police all transpired.
Ndokwa Reporters was reliably informed that attempt was made to abort the pregnancy, but through series of examination, the doctors discovered that she was five months pregnancy.
However, while the girl and her mom, along with Samuel, were going from the hospital, an auxiliary nurse/ward attendant cornered them a few meters away from the hospital and told them that she could handle the illegal abortion.
The party subsequently assigned the job to her and she gave them an appointment for the abortion to take place somewhere in Abraka, the neighbouring community, after the deal was struck, the auxiliary nurse subsequently gave Ijeoma a cocktail of tablets which the little girl was pressurized to swallow and the following day, she developed several complications arising from the abortion.
When her health condition worsened and she was at the point of death as a result of the unwholesome effects of the abortion drugs, she was rushed to another private clinic, in the town, where a life-saving medical treatment was carried out on her by cleaning the young girl’s womb of the dead fetus and in the process, saved her life.
Following the confessional statement of Ijeoma and her mother, the Police made several efforts to arrest Chief Akinima without successes as he was said to have evaded police arrest on several occasions.
On the first occasion, he was invited on an appointment and he failed to honour the invitation. On a second instance, police got information that he was in a meeting at the home of the political chief., but however on sighting the police, escaped into one of the adjoining rooms in the house. The Police had to honour the intervention of the chiefs and later sent a letter to Chief Odogwu to produce him within 24 hours.
This reporter gathered that Chief Akinima and the victim’s family had already reached an agreement where for the to pay the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200,000.00) to the family of the girl, to settle the matter. The agreement was said to have been written by a lawyer (name withheld).
However, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Obiaruku Police Station, Sp Isaac Ogbodu was not uncomfortable with the scenario whereby the case was not treated with the severity and justice it deserves. The DPO therefore refused to be compromised, and promptly transferred the case to the State CID, police Headquarters, Asaba.
Chief Akinima was however, said to been detained for almost three days at the Police Headquarters, Asaba, before he was released on bail.
When contacted the Police Headquarters at Asaba, the Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), Mr. Andrew Aniamaka, confirmed the incident and said “The DPO did the right thing by transferring the case to the State CID for discrete investigation.”
However, the human right activists, (names withheld) had vowed to pursue the case to its logical conclusion in his determined bid to ensure that Chief Akinima is made to face the full force of the law, for justice to be done.
