Emmanuel Ukudolo l Wednesday, March 21, 2018
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Mrs Victoria (Not her real name) mother of 2 year 11 months old pre-school girl allegedly defiled at Chrisland School, Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos by the supervisor of the Primary School section, Mr. Adenekan Adegboyega today testified before a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, revealing to the hearing of all that her daughter confessed practicing sexually acts she has never contemplated with the alleged deviant supervisor, Adegboyega.
Her testimony was laced with surprises and emotions as she wept profusely before Justice Sybil Nwaka, reeling out blow by blow account of how Adegboyega (40) abused her daughter, warning her never to tell anyone otherwise he will kill her, her mother and father.
It took wisdom on the part of Her Lordship, Justice Nwaka to get parties to agree to the need to protect the identity of the minor girl. Her mother, Victoria had mounted the witness box to testify but declined to mention her name since it will reveal the identity of the child who ought to be protected.
“My daugther used to recollect the incident sometimes 30 times a day, now about once a day. It was terrible, I could not eat because my daughter told me things I don’t even practice”, she said.
Prosecutor, B.T Boye had quoted from section one of the Child Rights Act of Lagos State to butress arguments of the mother that revealing her names will ultimately reveal the identity of her child and that it is the duty of the court to protect the identity of the child.
“I hereby submit that it is in the best interest of the child to protect the identity of the child. To disclose the name of the parents is to disclose the name of the child. The mother should be referred to as mother of the child”, he said.
But the defence team, lead by Mr. Olatunde Adejuyi(SAN) countered, stressing that he was not heard when he made a case for the protection of the defendant and that the newspapers failed to hide his identity and gleefully went ahead to reveal his identity even before her lordship would make any pronouncment on the matter. He argued that everybody is equal before the law and that he would only agree to protect the identity of the witness, ( mother of the minor)if he could find refuge in the law. Besides he argued that the best way to protect identity of the minor is for the mother not to testify as it is done in other climes.
Her Lordship, Justice Nwaka interjected, saying ” We are talking about protection of the child which is very paramount. The defendant talks about the protection of the defendant but I will say that the minor has to be protected. She has many years ahead of her. What I am trying to say is that protecting the child is the end. The end justifies the means, if the way and manner to go about protecting the identity of the child is not disclosing the identity of the mother… This is a special court and the issue of technicality I push them aside because justice has to be done. We can refer to her as mother in the interest of justice”, she said.
In replying the judge, the defence lawyer said, “My lord, it is either you give evidence or not. I do not know that interpretation of the law. You cannot get midway and want to short-circuit the law. I am ready to agree with my Lord as long as I can find refuge in the law”, he said.
But eventually, the defence team had his way paving way for the defendant to disclose her names in hush tone, to the hearing of a few.
At this stage, Victoria began to testify.
She identified herself as a full housewife that sells shoes from her car. The girl in question is my daugther. She was 2 years, 11 months. She is now 4 years old December 2nd 2017 and that the incident took place at Chrisland School, Lekki.
“She was in pre-school but she started from creche. I have another daughter that started with the school”. Asked if she knows the defendant, she replied, yes.
“When my daughter was in pre-school 1, her class teacher would tell me that the defendant had come to her class to say hello to her daughter. And that when she is crying , he was the only one that could placate her. I did not know him phycally at that time but I heard of the name. He followed her from Pre-school 1, a whole year up to pre-school 2. She left and was still going to her class in pre-school 2. Even when I told her teacher, she said, she thought we were family friends. He was supervisor in Primary section and he followed my daughter from pre-school 1 to pre-school 2. On one occasion, my daughter ran to him, calling him Mr. Adenekan.
HOW IT ALL STARTED.
November 10, 2016, on a Thursday, I picked her from school. At home I took her to the rest room and while helping to pull her clothes, I casually told her, don’t let anybody touch your (wewe), private part. Nothing prepared me for the response I got. Honestly, I thought I was making a statement that would generate, Ok, mummy. But the next thing she said is that he put his wiwi into my ‘wewe’. The first thing I did was to call my husband who was out of the country but he didn’t pick so I sent him Whatsapp message. Thesame day, I called her class teacher, telling him, my daugther said she has been abused and asked, has anybody taken her out of the class? She can identify her abuser. But the class teacher said No. In the evening that same day, I called another teacher who lives in the estate. She is like a mother to me, but she said he(Adenekan) could not do it and that he is a pastor but I told him this is what my child told me.
“On Friday, I took my child to school around 11am. Ironically, as we were entering the school, we saw him. A cleaner saw saw me coming and said: The Love that exists beween your daughter and and this man(Adenekan) is like this(demonstrating with two fingers crossed). I went to her school teacher and told her that my daughter said she has been abused and asked who takes her out of the class. But the class teacher said no. That same Friday, I took her to the paediatric doctor.
” I wanted to cover it up becaue I was scared of stigmatisation and the press. I was not going to press for charges but when he(Adenekan) told my daugther that if she tells anybody, her mother was going to die, that he will kill her and that her mother and dad would die. I took her to Heritage Hospital, Badore. The doctor examined her and confirmed there was redness(Heredima) in her and that her private part has been damaged.
“So, at night, I took her to the house of the Senior Supervisor in my estate. My daughter told the woman everything and she said she is going to talk to him. Through somebody I got his number and I called him. I told him, ‘ this is the girl’s mother and that my daughter said you have been sexually abusing her and her reply was, “I have heard all you said.’ Honestly, I wished I recorded the conversation. I told him to stop abusing her if not I will report him to the school. Then he said, “even if you report, nobody will believe you”, and as he said they did not believe me. I cut the call and sent him text message which reads in part, ‘Do not forget everything i said, when you see her just wave at her. There was no response from him.
IN THE CHURCH
On Sunday I was in the church. During the morning worship, I went to the alter to pray and as I was crying, an older woman saw me and and asked me why I was crying. I asked her to meet me by my car and we will chat. She asked me what I intend to do about it. I told her I intend to go to the school, Chrisland School and she promised to accompany me to the school. She called another older person and and three of us went to the school.
When we got to othe school, in the presence of the head teacher and Assistant Head teacher(six teachers) and she repeated all what she told me, saying thesame thing over again, ‘he put his wewe in my wewe and the school said, let’s do an examination. Let’s take her to a doctor. I didn’t want them to open her up again because she was crying when the paediatric doctor was examining her. On Monday, we went to the school to enable them do the examination. They checked her up and the doctor said as far as he is concerened he does not see evidence of sexual abuse. Then the school doctor gave her a paper and said she should draw his private part (wewe) and she drew it. That was the first place she drew his pivate part before that of the psychologist. The school principal was there. But Adenekan continued to deny the allegation.
THE POLYGRAPH TEST(LIE DETECTOR TEST) AT HALOGEN SECURITY
“So, my husband said, is he ready to submit himself to Lie Detector. He said yes. We started looking around. We even thought we were going to travel abroad but we found it in Halogen Security Lagos. We met even though he failed to meet up with the 10 am appointment. They did the test at Ikeja. I was not present in the office during the test. A day later, they sent me the result. They asked him three questions. Did you sexually fondle this child? He said no to the three questions and the test found out that he was lying.
Mrs. Adeyemi, one of the top management, daughter of the owner of the school running it promided to invetigate the matter so I waited for months but they did nothing. I called my aunt and she said, go to OPD, Office of Public Defender. When I got there, I told them what my daughter had told me. We went to Area F.
AT AREA F
I gave my statement at Area F. The DPO and all the policemen put their hands on their head when they heard the girl talk. She was like a fountain, describing the messy things they did together. I have taken my two children out of the school. A month later, the police asked me to dress up my daughter and they took us to the school. They asked the girl to identify his class. After playing around, she went upstars, identified his class. They asked her to identify his desk, she did. He was arrested and charged.
CHRISLAND SCHOOL CONDONED THE SEXUAL ABUSE
She reported that on a Monday, she went to see, Adenekan in school, they were hostile and asked her to leave. She had three interviews. She also went to see a psychologist. I also needed to see a psychologist because I was devastated. I got the form to Mirabel Medical Centre at the Police Station and from there we went to DSVRT and they asked us to see a psychologist.
WHY I TOOK UP THE CASE
I wanted to cover up the case. I wanted to wait until the end of the term and to take my child out of the school but two things changed my mind. My daughter told me that Mr. Adenekan warned her that if she told anybody, she would die and that he would kill her mother and father. The second is for the interest of other children who cannot speak up and parents who are not bold enought to take up the issue.
The school was quite about the incident. They said they reported to VGC Police station but I was never called hence I went to OPD. She told the court that she is a devoted housewife that resigned from secular employment as soon as she had her first daughter and that she was always with them but while they are in school.
It was under cross examination that she said she was a filmmaker. She wrote the film Twisted while her mother wrote Never Happened, she said she has acted in two films but that both films were produced in 2009 and 2013. She is now a full house wife.
STORY CAN BE REPRODUCED BUT CREDIT STARCONNECTMEDIA
