Saturday, April 02, 2016
For many young girls, coming to live in Lagos from the villages is a turning point they look forward to with excitement. It was the same for 12-year-old Rachael (not real name), who left her native Akwa Ibom State in company with her aunty, Joy Isong.

But within days of settling in Lagos, the girl had been traumatised to the point of regretting the day she made the decision to leave her widow mother, to follow her aunty.

Within days of her Lagos surjourn, the little girl, who was enroled in class five in a primary school in Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, had been raped two different times in her aunty’s home.

“I loved to come to Lagos but I did not want to leave my mother, but my aunty said if I followed her to Lagos, I would be happy. But now, I am so sad I did not know this is the kind of thing I will come and go through here,” Rachael said.

Rachael told our correspondent that she was sleeping in her aunty’s house one evening after the woman had gone to the market.

“I just woke up and noticed that a man was lying on top of me. I tried to push him away. I knew him. I had seen him in my aunty’s house a few times,” she said.

The man Rachael was talking about is Christian Nse, a father of five, who attends the same church as Rachael’s aunty.

“He is also my aunty’s customer. I tried to push him away from me. But he covered my mouth. Music was playing inside our house then. He had increased the volume and I did not know. He told me not to shout and said he would buy me expensive clothes. I told him I did not want any clothes, but he still raped me as he covered my mouth. When he finished, he told me to go to the bathroom and clean up the blood. Then he opened the door and left,” Rachael said.

The girl sobbed till her aunty came back from the market, Saturday PUNCH learnt.

“When my aunty came back, I told her what happened and she saw that I was still bleeding. She told me to go and clean up the blood. She then went out to see the man who raped me (Nse). He asked the man what happened and they went to see their pastor together,” she said.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that when they got to the pastor, Nse admitted that he indeed raped the girl and rather than report the matter to appropriate authorities, the pastor, Mr. Ezekiel Okon, asked Nse to kneel as he prayed fervently for him, asking God to deliver him from the spirit of rape.

When our correspondent got wind of the incident and visited Rachael’s aunty in a restaurant she operates in Mafoluku, the pastor was there with her.

Okon and the aunty appealed to our correspondent to let the matter go as the girl was simply fondled but not raped.

“Please sir, the man who touched her breast is no longer in Lagos,” the woman said.

“I was notified of the issue and I even scolded the man when they brought him to me. He has promised never to do such a thing again. Please, let us just forget it,” the pastor added.

On the surface, everything was alright. Glory was in the restaurant that day. She kept quiet as her aunty pretended that nothing bad had happened to her.

Nobody said anything about the fact that few days after Nse raped her, one of Isong’s sons also raped her, an information our correspondent later got from the girl when the case was later reported to the police by officials of the Jeshabel Touch-A-Heart Foundation.

Rachael explained that after she was raped by Nse, her aunty started taunting and tormenting her with hurtful words.

She said, “She started laughing at me. She was making jest of me and saying that I would become pregnant for the man. She said when I have the man’s child, I would become his wife. I always cried whenever she said that.

“One man on our street later heard about the matter and went to tell the wife of the man (Nse) what happened. The man’s wife then came to my aunty’s house and took me to a hospital. The doctor in the hospital said that I still had some blood inside me that needed to be washed out. After he washed it out, he gave me injection and I was told to go home.”

Saturday PUNCH spoke with Mrs. Nse, who explained that she believed that her husband indeed raped the girl.

“I was angry with him. When I confronted him, he said he did not know what to say. We have been married for more than 20 years. I did not even speak with him for some weeks after I heard he raped the girl,” she said.

But that was not the end of Rachael’s ordeal.

Few days later, when her aunty was away from the house, the woman’s 18-year-old son, Daniel, who is Rachael’s cousin, grabbed her again and raped her.

“I told him that I would tell his mummy when she came back. I told him that I did not believe that he was an animal because I had always seen him like my own brother. But he just laughed after he had raped me. When my aunty came and I told her, she shouted at me to leave her presence. She said she did not like looking at my face because I am very ugly. She told me to get out.”

With nowhere to turn to, Rachael decided to tell her class teacher all she had been going through at home.

Luckily for Rachael, the Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Education Authority had previously held an awareness lecture on rape and sexual assault, telling the teachers and pupils what to do when they go through such things.

The teacher promptly informed the authorities, which in turn got the Jeshabel Foundation involved in the case.

Head of the guidance and counselling unit of the education authority, who is also in charge of  sexual harassment and molestation issues within primary schools in Oshodi-Isolo, Mrs. Irene Enogwe, explained to our correspondent that her office had previously taught students to always speak out when they are raped.

“We always tell them that it is to their benefit to tell their parents when someone molests them. If their parents do not listen to them, they should be able to walk up to their teachers to narrate what happened. We are happy that the girl in this case immediately followed that instruction,” Enogwe said.

By Thursday, Founder and coordinator of the Jeshabel Touch-A-Heart Foundation, Mrs. Favour Benson, had reported the case at the Makinde Police Division.

That same day, the police rounded up all the parties concerned – Nse, Rachael’s aunty, her son, the pastor, Nse’s wife – with plans to prosecute everyone who had contributed to the girl’s woes.

Benson told Saturday PUNCH, “We will be taking her to the Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Ikeja for treatment. We would be taking her to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for counselling. The girl has been traumatised. She needs to go through a lot of processes to get her confidence back. Even at the end, she would need to go back to her mother.

“We learnt that the doctor, whom the girl was taken to by the rapist’s wife examined her and certified her to be alright even though he was told the girl was raped.The doctor made no attempt to report the case. He should be arrested too.

“The most annoying part is that the pastor who should have also reported the matter to the police decided to conduct a deliverance on the rapist as well. After the deliverance, would the trauma of the victim vanish? He should be prosecuted for conspiracy in the crime too because all of them are members of his church. Francis is a member of the church, Christian is a member of the church, the aunty is a member of the church.”

Saturday, April 02, 2016
The overall best graduate of the Imo State University, Owerri in the 2012/2013 academic session, Dr. Ekenze Chigozie, finished from the Department of Optometry with a 4.71 CGPA. In this interview , he shares some of the activities that characterised his days in school.



Why were you the only one who was rewarded with a car gift at the combined convocation of seven academic sessions which held in your school recently?
It was because I was the overall best the school has produced between that 2009 and now. I had the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average and that was the person the Chancellor of the school, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, the owner of Innoson Motors, chose to reward with the gift. That was how I became the recipient of the car.

Did you see it coming?
No, I didn’t. It came as a surprise. I was shocked, likewise my mum. In fact, I didn’t know I would be the overall best until I was called a few days to the programme. When I was called, I was excited, jumping up and down and people around me knew something was happening; I couldn’t hide it. It is more heartwarming for me because I never even planned to be the best in my set. If it was something I had envisioned, and this happened, I would see it as a great reward for a good plan that materialised, but to be the overall best was not in my plan. All I wanted was to be the best in my department and faculty. I didn’t know all I did to achieve those two targets was enough to emerge as the overall best. So, beyond the car gift, which I’m grateful for, it’s a thing of joy for me to be the best in the school for the past seven years.

Have you started using the car now?
Not yet, I don’t know how to drive, but I’m planning to go to a driving school soon.

What were the decision(s) you made when you got to school that helped you eventually?
I was determined not to relate with people who could distract me. One of the things I later learnt about life as an undergraduate was how easy it could be to be distracted, usually in the name of freedom. So, I was careful with my choice of friends. Also, I made sure I had no relationship throughout, which is another distraction many students face. I started leading my class from 100 Level first semester and my least score was a 50C.

What drove you to study Optometry?
From time, I had always wanted to study medicine and surgery because I have the passion to be of help to people, especially when it has to do with their well being. Coupled with the fact that I ultimately want to save lives, medicine is a profession that is so much in demand. But I couldn’t get the course. I was offered Optometry and since it is something that has to do with health and solving people’s problems, I accepted it and it’s been a pleasant experience. I enjoyed Optometry, especially the externship programme, because it exposed me to the practicality of the profession. Physical optics was, however, somehow tasking, but it was worth it.

What is this course about?
It’s basically the practice of examining the eyes, by means of suitable instruments or appliances, for defects in vision and eye disorders in order to prescribe corrective lenses or other appropriate treatment. So, an optometrist is an eye doctor who examines eyes for both vision and health problems, and correct refractive errors by prescribing eyeglasses, contact lenses and any other treatment. Some optometrists also provide low vision care and vision therapy. It’s an interesting course because you get to know the mechanism behind vision and other interesting things about the eyes.

What was the most striking thing you found about the human eye?
The most striking for me is that despite how small the human eye is, it is very complicated. Beyond what you see on the outside, the mechanism behind how it operates is a complex but interesting one, and that is why someone would spend six years in the university studying the eye alone.

Some people tend to confuse an optometrist with an optician. What distinguishes them?
Opticians are people who specialise in the fabrication of lenses and fixing of lenses into frame, as well as the manufacturing of other ocular aids. So, theirs is strictly the production of lenses and ocular aids. They don’t examine patients. They manufacture lenses and store them in the ophthalmic laboratory, so that when the optometrist has need of them, he places an order. Optometrists are the primary health care practitioners for the eyes. They attend to patients, conduct tests to detect and treat any abnormality in the eye and if they encounter conditions that are outside the scope of the profession, they simply make referrals.

What are the common things people engage in that affect their sight?
One of them is poor hygiene and self medication. Many people think they can rush to a pharmaceutical shop and get any eye drop for use, without knowing the contraindication of such medicine. So, using a wrong drug, especially when done without a doctor’s prescription, could have an effect on the eye. There are some other practices, for example, too much exposure to some form of light, like computer screen, could affect the eyes. What we do for such people is to install screen guard or we give them a spectacle that has the screen that can shield the eyes from that radiation.

It is assumed that medicine and related courses are only for the serious-minded. How easy was it?
I can only attribute it all to God. He made it possible. I only made sure that I didn’t lag in my own way. I contributed my quota by working hard, doing my assignments with all seriousness and preparing ahead of exams. I spent extra hours studying and there was no day I didn’t go to the library. Also, sharing knowledge with my colleagues helped me a lot. When you teach others, you learn more because you want to be prepared before facing others. I wasn’t the type who went to parties or clubs and I never joked with campus fellowship meetings. So, I had to get my priorities right. The other thing is to know what works for you. I wasn’t the type who would read for so long. The much I could go was five hours at a time, but I read frequently and I used the library almost every day. In fact, my day was incomplete without a visit to the library or my personal library. So, given all the activities of the day, I didn’t deprive myself of sleep; I was sleeping for about seven hours daily.

What was your performance like in your previous schools?
I had good performance in my previous schools. It wasn’t too hard passing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. I passed them at a sitting. It was just God and hard work, which was self-driven, because I don’t think I’m a genius. The way I was brought up, mediocrity was not tolerated, so I learnt at a very young age that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. I thank God I had the best result in my secondary school and I had admission that same year. What I did when I got into the university was to maintain the momentum and apply the principles that had worked for me earlier.

How was your experience as a fresh student in your 100L?
It wasn’t really easy. We had to attend tutorials very early in the morning and it was then that I lost my dad. I almost dropped out because of financial challenges. It affected me in all areas of my life. In fact, it was in that same session that I had my least grade in school. I was emotionally unstable because I was always thinking of him. And I would always remember him anytime I had financial challenge. It got to a point that I couldn’t afford my books. I had to borrow from colleagues but when I saw that some were not willing to release their books to me, I had to engage in tutorial classes for fresh students and 200 Level students to raise some money, and it worked. It didn’t only help me financially, it also helped me academically. It made me to be more disciplined with the way I used my time, so it was either I was studying, or I was at the tutorial centre.

Were you social at all?
Yes, I was. I used to go out with friends, occasionally, and I was active in sports, especially before my 500 Level. At my leisure, I used to play and watch football, among other games. Meanwhile, my favourite social gathering was campus fellowship; I was a member of Watchman Catholic Charismatic Campus Fellowship.

Did your mother reward you for good performance?
Yes, she would buy me a soft drink (her widow’s mite) and prepare my favourite meal every semester I came back home with the best grades.

How did you cope with possible gestures from ladies?
Yes, there were such gestures but I chose my female friends carefully. I related well with everybody and helped as much as I could but I was only close to those who were hardworking and godly.

Could you recall your happiest and most embarrassing moments in school?
My best moment was my final year when I made ‘A’ in all my courses and I had 5.00 GPA. It was a dream come true. But losing in my departmental election was most disappointing.

What are your future plans?
I want to be a professor before I’m 40, and I want to be married before my 31st birthday.

What would be your advice to students?
My advice to students is that they should aim at the best, believe they can achieve it, work hard, manage their time well, be contented with what they have and make God the ultimate in their lives.

Saturday, April 02, 2016
The disappearance of a two-year-old girl, Chinaza Agwa from her parents’ bedside on March 6 has shocked inhabitants of Amuwo Odofin area of La­gos State.Since then, her parents, community leaders and other resi­dents have been in agony . 
Saturday Sun gathered that  Chinaza is the last child of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth and Chinyere Agwa whose 14-year old marriage has yielded four children namely; Emeka, 13, Chioma 9, Obinna, 7 and Chinaza, 2.

Recounting how Chinaza disap­peared, the mother, Mrs. Chinyere said that the last time she saw her daughter was around 1am on the fateful March 6, adding that Chin­aza was wearing a red trouser and a top.
“The last time I saw my last daughter was on 6th of March, around 1am. I had just fed her with tea and bread. She was wearing red trousers with a shirt. The only thing she could say was to call mummy, daddy and brother. She is a girl that when you go close to her, you would not regret it. She plays with everybody,” she said.
After feeding her daughter, Chinyere went to bed and slept off. It was not until 4am when she woke up to check on her daughter that she noticed her disappearance from her side.
“It was around 4am when I woke up from sleep but I did not see my daughter. I woke my hus­band up and he told me to check her in the other room where her brothers and sister laid. I did as my husband told me, but I did not see her. I continued to search for her. I went outside the room to search for her, yet I didn’t see her”.
Chinyere did not limit her search for Chinaza to the rooms. Im­mediately, she decided to call the at­tention of her neighbours to her pre­dicament. As she was stepping out of her shanty of a house; built with woods and covered with polythene, she noticed something strange, the front door of her makeshift apart­ment, was widely opened. It was an unusual scenario.
“I began to shout. I woke all my neighbours. I urged them to help me check if my daugh­ter walked into their houses. But I discovered my front door was opened. I hardly leave the front door opened. I was the one who closed the compound gate and our door that night. I could not have left the door opened,” she wondered.
While her neighbours were wail­ing, Chinyere noticed that the gate to the compound was also tam­pered with.
 “The gate was forceful­ly opened. Our neighbours passed underneath the gate. Some of my neighbours came home around 1 am. Underneath the gate there is a large hole there that one can pass through into the compound,” she disclosed.
Shedding light on the matter was Chinaza’s father, Kenneth Agwa, who said his daughter’s disappear­ance was like abduction by an in-house friend.
He alleged that their door was opened when they woke up, dis­closing that his door can be opened from outside, even when locked from within.
“They could enter my apartment through the main door. Anybody close to me in the compound knows how to open it. You can stretch your hand over the door and unhook the door. When we lost our key there is a place I cut the door. All the boys in the compound come to my house to charge their phones, therefore, they know how to unlock the door. That day, they used the same method to steal the baby away,” he narrated.
Kenneth said that they searched for Chinaza till daybreak. Thereaf­ter, she took h search to the streets, close by bushes and neighbouring communities.
“When we didn’t see our child at dawn, we started to look for her everywhere. We even went to bushes to search for her. We went to neighbouring communities also. We also went to the barracks on our way back, we saw estate landlords who have joined the search. They group themselves and searched with us. They also searched inside the forest. It was in the night that DPO Trade Fair Police arrived with patrol van, it was then he said that we must come to the police to make proper statement,” he stated.
Neighbours as suspects 
The houses in the compound were built in a semi-circular style, with each house fused to the other. As such, it is possible to hear discus­sions in the next apartment. Ken­neth who is also the caretaker of the compound said that before his daughter’s disappearance, there has been relative peace in the house. He said that in the last five years he has resided in the compound, there has not been a case of theft or anything related. To him, the only problem in the compound has been one of his co-tenants, simply known as Chinonso.
“Before the disappearance of my daughter, there has not been any case of missing cloth or theft situation. I have been living in the house for five years. I am the care­taker of the house. I have been safe there, but since all these area boys started bringing different people there, things have not been the same. Now, there is no peace, they fight and quarrel all the time. I have time s without number, told them to evict the boys they brought to the house,” he stated.
Saturday Sun gathered that two of Kenneth’s neighbours are cur­rently in police custody. One of the suspects, Chinonso was arrested for making an ambitious statement. It was gathered that Chinonso had boasted, in Kenneth’s presence, that he would make money, by hook or by crook. Kenneth alleged that Chinaza was very close to Chi­nonso.
“Towards the beginning of last year, Chinonso said that he would make money by all means; that if his wish does not come to past that year that he can use anybody or anything to have riches. Since he made that comment, his ways have not been straight, he has become more notorious than ever. He fights and quarrels with everybody. He has threatened virtually everybody in the compound. He even said that he was going to kill one of our neighbours. The most painful part of this is that he is very nice to my children. He would take Chinaza away and get her things and return in peace. Sometimes he would play with all of them together. He is not someone that will carry my baby and she would start to cry. My baby plays and eats in his house. My baby loves the boy. She likes him to feed her. He has lived a year and some months with us,” he stated.
The second suspect in custody is Onyeka. While Chinonso is a co-tenant, Onyeka lives in the next compound. Onyeka was arrested because his shoe was seen in the compound on the day of Chinaza’s disappearance.When Kenneth fi­nally found him, after abandoning his house, Onyeka denied owning the brown shoe.
“He lives at the back of my house. When you were coming, if you had noticed, there was a bush, in that bush, he is building a shanty. A day before my daugh­ter disappeared, Onyeka lodged a complaint to my wife about our neighbours’ throwing dirt into his compound. I went out and told him that I would take care of it. That very day, he was wearing a brown shoe with jeans knickers. When we woke in the morning and were looking for our baby, we saw a brown shoe.
We traced the owner up to the area boys who identified that the shoe belonged to Onyeka. They said that it belonged to Ofuo­la meaning ‘I am missing’ which is another nickname Onyeka has. I looked for him for more than a week. A boy I see everywhere be­fore the disappearance of my baby. It was by the grace of the area boys that the police arrested him. He had been in hiding after the incident happened. When we got to the po­lice, he denied owning the shoe but the police asked him to wear it, low and behold it sized him,” he stated.
Kenneth is pleading with the two suspects or whoever is with his child to release her and save the two boys in custody. “If I see my baby, they can be released,” he stated.
When Chinyere was asked how she has been holding up, she said she is still expecting her baby to walk into the house through the front door. It is the same hope she is giving her other children who have continued to ask her about their sis­ter. 
“I have been telling them that they should be calm that their sister would return. They know that their sister is missing,”

Saturday, April 02, 2016
Radio Biafra which has been off the air for some time, is currently streaming live across the Nigerian airwaves without Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). 

 Checks by an online medium, TheCable revealed that the station is live on Tune In, an Internet radio airing across the world. According to the TheCable, “the radio station has hit the airwaves pushing the same message of “freedom of Biafraland” while condemning the happenings in Nigeria, regarded as a Zoo. Radio Biafra is airing from “30 Sandlings Close, Pilkington Road, London, SE11 3SY England, United Kingdom”. When TheCable tuned in, the anchor, who was referred to as the new deputy director of the station, was complaining about the state of power and energy resources in the country. 

 After receiving a call from Nigeria to complain that the radio was not being aired via FM in some parts of south east Nigeria, the anchor responded by saying the problem would be resolved. “There is no problem with our general platform, we would look into it tomorrow. We are not forgetting our leader, Kanu. Lord God almighty, grant our leader protection. Continue to set confusion in the midst of our enemies, grant us total freedom”, he said. Security agents had earlier arrested suspected masterminds of Radio Biafra, and charging its leader to court for treasonable felony. 
The signals were also reportedly jammed after initial failed attempts, but the station is still broadcasting on the world wide web, after months off air. After it was jammed in 2015, it announced that it had launched another station and promised to launch 50 others. 

 Both Radio Biafra and Biafra 24 radio were live online as at Friday afternoon, while residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers state, were said to be having difficulties accessing the station via local transmission. 
IPOB released a statement earlier in the week to say: “Right now, we are back on shortwave after Nigerian government spent millions of dollars taxpayers money trying to stop Radio Biafra. “All Biafrans and friends of Biafra can now go to 11600 kHz at 25-meter band to cherish the gospel of truth, Broadcasting time is 8pm London time, 9pm Biafra land time. We are unstoppable because Chukwuka Okike Abiama, Almighty God, is on our side.”

Friday, April 01, 2016
Boko Haram released a new video Friday denying any suggestions it would surrender, just over a week after their shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a rare message looking dejected and frail.


Shekau, who was not seen on camera for more than a year, released an unverified video late last month and said his time in charge of the Nigerian jihadist group may be coming to an end.


If the video indeed depicts Shekau, he appears thin and listless, delivering his message without his trademark fiery rhetoric.


It prompted speculation from the army that the Islamist group was on the verge of collapse in the face of a sustained military counter-insurgency.


However, in Friday’s message, Boko Haram maintained it was a potent fighting force, with fighters posing with AK-47s in front of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks and a lorry mounted with a military cannon.


“You should know that there is no truce, there is no negotiations, there is no surrender,” an unidentified masked man wearing camouflage said in a prepared script in Hausa, in the video posted on YouTube.

“This war between us will not stop.”


The video, which was of markedly better quality than Shekau’s and included Arabic subtitles, featured nine masked Boko Haram fighters standing on sandy ground in an undisclosed desert location.
It is unclear if the masked people in the video include the Boko Haram leader.


Shekau was still the head of the “West African wing”, said the masked man in the video, likening Boko Haram to the Islamist insurgencies in Iraq, Libya and Syria.


In March 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, another of the world’s most deadly terror organisations.


But there were few signs Boko Haram — now styled as Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) — has so far benefited from the partnership.


Nigeria’s army has since then won back swathes of territory from the militants, liberating thousands living under Boko Haram control.


An estimated 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram began its campaign of violence in 2009 to carve out a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
More than 2.6 million people have fled their homes since then but some of the internally displaced have begun returning.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.