The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says six out of ten children in Nigeria experience emotional, physical or sexual abuse before the age of eighteen with half of them experiencing physical violence.
In this special report, Ekwi Ajide looks at the reasons for increasing rate of sexual molestation of children in Igboland.
Though the age of consent for sexual relationship in Nigeria is eighteen years, a 2015 report of UNICEF says one in four girls and one in ten boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of eighteen.
In spite of the increasing incidences of rape especially of minors, it still remains the most underreported crime as survey shows ninety one point six percent of rapes are unreported.
This experts say, reasons differ and include fear of retaliation, uncertainty about whether a crime was committed, fear of stigmatization, not wanting to put the offender in trouble and lack of confidence in law enforcement agents.
Though there are different types of rape such as male to male, female to female rape, only male to female rapes are often reported.
A United Nation’s statistical report of sixty five countries, showed that two hundred and fifty thousand cases of rape or attempted rape were reported by the police annually.
Reacting to the increased cases of rape of minors and the consequent silence, the traditional ruler of Igbakwu in Aghamelum Local Government Area, Professor Onuorah Nwuneli, said there is a transition in the cultural society since what is considered sacrilege in the olden days, today, is treated otherwise.
The traditional ruler lamented that in recent times, Christianity seems to have erased the fear of retribution thereby, watering down all the traditional instruments of power which the traditional
institution had at its disposal to punish criminal offences.
Also speaking against rape of minors, a group known as Ochanya campaign group stormed the ABS recently bearing placards with inscriptions such as, “justice for Ochanya,” “wives and girls speak out,” “raped to death bring them to book,” hang the rapist father and son, stop child abuse” among others.
Leaders of the group, including the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Community liaison, Ambassador Maryann Ekeh and Lady Lorreta Benedict, prayed God to always punish perpetrators of such crime.
It will be recalled that Ochanya was the fifteen year old girl who died as a result of VVF occasioned after she was raped by her guardian and his son in Benue State.
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