From Muhammad Ahmad Saka, in Bauchi
The Wife of the Bauchi State Governor, Dr Aishatu Bala Mohammed has lamented the way sexual assault is taking a new dimension with a case of a father who allegedly impregnated his biological daughter twice.
Hajiya Aisha said this in Bauchi, when she interacted with reporters on the effort of the state action committee on sexual and gender violence to reduce sexual assault in the State.
She explained that the father of the victim hails from Jigawa state, while her mother is from Bauchi. The mother, she said, was separated from the girl’s father, with the mother taking the daughter along with her.
Aafter several years, some children were teasing the girl that she did not know her father, leading to the girl asking her mother to take her to her father.
She took her to her father and the father said he wanted to remarry the mother, and they both agreed to the proposal after talks.
The mother of the rape victim then left the daughter with her father and left to fully return to settle down for the reunion.
Before returning to settle down in the renewed marriage, the father had started molesting the daughter by sleeping with her, a development the daughter revealed to her mother.
The mother confronted the father and he confirmed the act, after which the mother took her daughter to the hospital.
After medical examination, both the mother and the daughter were confirmed pregnant for the randy father.
“The mother developed high blood pressure. She gave birth. The daughter too gave birth and the mother suffered a stroke (paralysis) until she died.
“After her death, the mother’s family chased the daughter away and took the mother’s baby. The daughter had no option than to go back to her father, because she had no other choice.
“The father continued molesting the girl and later married another woman, and the girl told her step mother that her father was molesting her. She asked the father if what the girl said was true. The father said it was true. She left his house in protest, while the father continued with the molestation until the girl was pregnant again. She gave birth, and the neighbours noticed that the girl was not married. They used to see her with two babies, and she was asked by the neighbours and she told them that her father was responsible.
“They reported the matter to the Hisbah Board of Kano. The Hisbah (Civilian Police) arrested the suspect and took him to court and he was imprisoned for 7 years.
“Since her mother hails from Bauchi, the girl was brought back to Bauchi through the efforts of the Ministry of Women Affairs.”
Dr Aisha said that authorities in Bauchi are doing everything possible to change the condition of the molested girl.
“We want to take her to school because her situation is pathetic. We are taking care of her and we have opened a bank account for her. We are giving her a salary, God willing. If she is able to get a proposed husband, she will get married and she will decide what to do with her money.”
The wife of the Governor said the state action committee recorded another pathetic story of another woman in their care.
This time, the woman’s biological mother usually brings men to sleep with her daughter, to the extent that the mother went to a soothsayer to get concoction that will enhance the girl’s capacity to be strong enough to have sex with up to five men a day.
“We now also keep her and we are trying to see that we give her special care and medicine so that she will come back to her senses. She said that she is ready to get married. She said she has a suitor and we have sent for the young man. if God wills, we will help her to marry him, since she is looking like she doesn’t want to go to school”.
Dr Aisha also cited cases of abuse, such as men beating their wives and breaking their body, and so many other cases of domestic violence which the authorities used to settle many times. “Our office has become like a court but we make sure all perpetrators of sexual assault were punished.
“And we have been successful in more than 80 cases”.
She said as part of efforts to reduce the menace, “we will use the media anytime we are prosecuting the perpetrators so that people will see their faces. We will put them to shame to serve as a deterrent.”
