by Oke Efagene

A 4-year-old girl was defiled by a female teacher, Olajumoke Oyewole, at Golden Sharon Nursery and Primary School (formerly known as Kingdom Sharon). The incident happened on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at the school premises located at Ijaba area of Ota, Ogun  State.

The girl (names withheld), who is a nursery pupil, got home with her twin brother on Tuesday afternoon and complained to her mother about a persistent pain in her private part.

The girl’s mother said, “I asked her what was wrong and she said, ‘stone.’ I thought she meant that somebody stoned her and I waved off the matter that she would be alright. But when the pain persisted and she kept complaining, I decided to check why she was feeling pain there. That was when I discovered a wound on her private part.

“I was alarmed and I asked her who did that to her. She immediately mentioned Aunty Jummy (the accused.) I asked what the teacher did to her and she said the lady dipped her finger in her private part and brought out a stone which she used to scratch her there. The lady is not her class teacher. She (Oyewole) teaches another class beside my daughter’s. I did not understand this and I quickly called my daughter’s class teacher on the phone to help investigate the issue. She said I should come the following day but I decided to go that same day.

“I reported the matter to the head of the school and while we were leaving, we went past the (accused’s) class. My daughter said, ‘Mummy come, this is where she did it. She sat on that chair and put me on her lap and used the stone.’ She pointed to the teacher’s chair in the classroom. The lady was not around at the time.”

The girl’s mother said she had to take her child to the family clinic to carry out a test on the girl, as she found the situation strange and confusing. However, her husband who is away at work in Benin, Edo State, has been informed about the incident and he has instructed her to report the matter to the police immediately.

The mother continued, “The doctor examined her and asked me to have a look at my daughter’s private part. She explained that apart from the wound from which my daughter was bleeding, her hymen had been torn. The doctor said only a state hospital could give a report on such test since it was suspected that a crime might have been committed.”

According to reports, the police also took the child to a state hospital where another test was conducted and the same confirmation was made concerning the defilement of the child. When Oyewole was arrested by the police, she denied committing the crime and resisted arrest, but she was convinced to go with them by the owner of the school.

The case has been reported by a member of the victim’s family to the Children’s Anti-Corruption Initiative (CACTI), a non-governmental organisation concerned with the protection of children’s future. The CACTI team visited Onipanu Police Division where the accused is being held in a cell as confirmed by a divisional crime officer at the police station.

The police officer said, “The teacher is in the cell. This is a serious matter that we are still investigating. We are still working on the case. She will probably be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department in Abeokuta soon.”

While in the premises of the police station, the accused’s mother, with tears on her face, approached CACTI’s group and knelt down pleading with them to let the matter be settled. However, when asked if she had asked her daughter why she carried out such act on the little girl, she said she had not asked her. The victim’s mother was asked whether there was any possibility that her daughter might be confused as to who did such a thing to her, she said she considered it but that it had become clear that it was the accused.

According to her, “The night of the incident, we woke her up in the middle of the night just to be sure, we asked who did it to her, she said, ‘Aunty Jummy’. It was the same answer the following morning. “When we got to the hospital, the doctors threatened her with injection to say who really did it. My daughter can faint at the sight of an injection. That is what she hates most in life. But she repeated the same name.”

The Executive Secretary of CACTI, Omololu Akinwande, said there was a high possibility that the teacher had been sent to perform the act in order to use the girl’s blood for ritual purpose. He said, “What you must note is that the girl is not in the accused teacher’s class. She is also a twin and the strange object the teacher allegedly used is suspicious.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that some wicked people had connived with the teacher to get them something from a twin. This is why this case must not be swept under the carpet. It is just unfortunate that many schools in Nigeria are no longer safe for children. Government needs to make it compulsory for schools to put in place CCTV cameras in order to keep children safe. When people know they are being watched, they are not likely to try something bad with children in their care.”

Akinwande insisted that rape in Nigeria had gone beyond sexual desire, adding that many now indulge in it for ritual purposes.  The proprietor of the victim’s school proprietor  was unreachable when an attempt was made to contact her on Thursday, as her phone was switched off. She was also arrested by the police on Friday.