- Community leaders threaten victim’s parents
The police have arrested a 30-year-old Disc Jockey, Enitan Alashe, for allegedly defiling a 6-year-old child (names withheld) of his neighbours in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Our correspondent gathered that Alashe, who runs his music service shop in the Bayeku area of Ikorodu and lived in the same compound with the parents of the victim, had allegedly lured the little girl into his room with some money before defiling her.
A resident of the area, Wasiu Dada, explained that Alashe met his waterloo when the mother of the little girl caught him in the act.
Dada said, “Alarm was raised by Iya Aishat herself when she entered the man’s room and met her daughter being molested by Enitan. In fact, I heard that the man even threatened to beat the woman if she raised the alarm. But the woman summoned courage and shouted before people intervened and dragged him to the police.”
The minor was said to have later been confirmed by doctor’s report from the Ikorodu General Hospital to have been truly defiled.
The Director of Community Women Rights Foundation, Alhaji Lateef Akinborode, also confirmed the incident to our correspondent.
Akinborode described the defiling of the minor as pathetic, considering the degree of injury the doctor’s report confirmed that the girl sustained during the incident.
The Foundation’s director explained that his findings, following the lodging of complaints of the incident in his office, revealed that the mother of the victim herself caught the perpetrator in the act.
According to him, “When Interrogated, the mother of the little girl, told me that she suddenly heard her daughter’s cries from Enitan’s room. She then quickly dashed into the room where she saw her daughter trying to pull her hand free from Enitan’s grip and shouting “leave me alone! Let me go!” and when she inquired what was going on, the man quickly said he was only playing with the girl. Later, she noticed blood-stains on her daughter and later discovered it was from the girl’s underwear. When she checked very well, she saw that it was from her private part and immediately, they took her to Ikorodu General Hospital where the doctor confirmed that the little girl had been defiled.”
Speaking on the suspect, Akinborode added, “When I checked on him at the police station where he was being interrogated, he confessed to committing the offence but in a different way. He said, he didn’t have the carnal knowledge of the girl, but only used his finger.”
But findings by our correspondent revealed that the suspect later denied defiling the little girl.In his latter confession, the suspect told the Foundation director that he must have mistakenly defiled the little girl with his sharp fingernails.
Akinborode said, “When I later had the opportunity to interview him, he told me personally that the girl was about to fall from his hand and he made effort to save her. But while trying to save her, his finger mistakenly slipped into her private part and injured her in the process.”
Further investigations by our correspondent revealed that the suspect, who had been a popular DJ within the community, was hired to provide musical entertainment service to guests during the naming ceremony of the victim.
Case takes shocking turn
While the police and concerned human right activists within the community were making concerted efforts to get justice for the victim, her parents suddenly withdrew interest in the case and asked the police to set the suspect free.
It was learnt that the parents of the victim pleaded with the police to grant the suspect bail.
“To my surprise, the parents of the little girl said that the police in charge of the matter should release the man because they didn’t want court case. When the girl’s parents said this earlier, I met with them on Sunday morning to discuss with them to enable them understand why we need to take the matter to court and after series of discussions, they finally agreed with me.
“But to my greatest surprise, when I got to the police station today I discovered the suspect had been released. I wonder why people, out of either ignorance or fear, ignore serious cases like this. Imagine what has been done to the little girl and they want to kill the case like that because of their secret agenda. In fact, it is very unfortunate,” Akinborode said.
Our correspondent, however, gathered from sources that the parents of the defiled minor were forced to abandon the case by some of the community leaders who allegedly threatened them not to pursue the matter further to avoid some untoward consequences.
According to him, “They (victim’s parents) withdrew the case out of fear of what will befall them from some people that have begun to threaten them over the case. I was told they said they will deal with them if they take the family of Enitan to court. So, they decided to plead with the police to release the boy.”
The victim’s mother, who refused to be identified, confirmed the family’s fears over the case, said, ”I am not interested in talking to anyone, please. All I know is that we are no more interested in taking the matter to court. We just came back from the police station and we have settled the case amicably, and we have asked for the release of the man”.
When asked to explain how the incident happened, she merely said,” I have said I am no more saying anything on this case again; we are no more interested in the case again”.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, did not pick her phone when called by our correspondent for her comment on the case.
Badmos, who is a superintendent of police, did not also respond to text messages sent to her.
