Nigerian laws stipulate that cases that have to do with Sex and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) should be charged to court, but the police, who are the first responders to such cases, through their actions and inactions, deprive survivors’ justice, JULIANA FRANCIS reports. Here is the first part of the series.

Policewoman facilitates suspect’s escape
A widow, Mrs. Salisu, has been waiting for justice for three years. The wait appears to be going along the pattern of the classical absurd theatre play of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot.’

Salisu’s 16-year-old daughter was raped in 2019 by their married neighbour, Raymond Makinde, in his late 40s. Raymond is a father of four. Salisu is yet to overcome the anger and shock of how the case was truncated by a policewoman she identified as Tina.

Salisu said she didn’t know Tina’s surname or rank, but the woman was serving at Elere Police Station, Agege, Lagos State, when the incident happened. Salisu was overwhelmed with sadness as she narrated the incident.

Because she needed to work extra hard to cater for her children, she took to trading. In November of 2019, she noticed all was not well with her youngest daughter. The girl was given to bouts of crying and refused to speak about her grief. Salisu also noticed that whenever she left home for the market, Raymond was always lurking around the compound, as well as when she returned home. Salisu said: “I didn’t know he was monitoring my movement. One night, my daughter woke me up, saying she would kill herself if we didn’t move out of the compound. I was disturbed.”

One day, Salisu got home and saw Raymond at the front of the compound, when she got to her apartment, which was behind the building in the ‘face-me-I-face-you’ (a multi-room) compound, she found her daughter weeping.

She said: “I immediately rushed to the front of the compound and rained curses. I noticed that Raymond swiftly moved away.”

Raymond eventually confessed, perhaps for fear of Salisu’s daily curses. When Salisu queried her daughter, the girl confirmed it.

Salisu added: “He had raped her twice in the bathroom at knifepoint. He usually monitored her; whenever the compound was lonely, he would go after her. On the first day he raped her; she defecated on her body and lost consciousness. After Raymond confessed in the presence of his wife, he pleaded with me not to tell anyone or else he would kill me.”

She reported the matter at Elere Police Station, where the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) was Tina. Tina asked for N10,000 for the medical examination at Mirabel Centre; though the centre doesn’t charge fee from rape survivors. Salisu gave N7,000, promising to give a balance of N3,000 to Tina.

Salisu began to suspect foul play when she noticed that Tina and Raymond were always whispering and laughing at the station. Later, Tina allegedly told Salisu and her daughter to ‘settle’ with Raymond.

Salisu recollected: “Tina told my daughter to see the case as a ‘business deal’ and that she would now be making money for her mother, that Raymond would ‘settle well.’ She told us she just concluded a case, where the rapist had to buy a sewing machine for the victim, and the case was settled. She reminded me that I was a widow, struggling with money, that now money had finally ‘located’ me. She said that my daughter was not too young to be having sex with men.”

When Salisu insisted on justice, Tina insulted her.

“She advised me to go and buy antibiotics for my daughter. When I asked for the refund of my N7,000, she said she had used it,” recalled Salisu.

The widow recollected that when her late husband’s brother came to the police station, Tina cornered and told him that, “Raymond and my daughter had been lovers for long, and that I had been collecting money from him. Tina told him that it was because Raymond refused to give me money for a new wrapper that I accused him of rape. My brother-in-law didn’t ask for my side of the story; he just left the police station. I now went to a human rights activist, Esther Child Rights Foundation.”

The Executive Director of the Foundation, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, said that she demanded a refund of the N7,000 from Tina. She also insisted that the necessary papers should be provided so that the survivor could go to Mirabel Centre for medical examination.

Salisu recollected: “I was walking past Raymond’s window when I heard his wife on the phone telling someone that Tina said she wouldn’t go ‘below N200,000.’ Earlier, Tina had told me that she would show me that she had been a policewoman for over 20 years. She said that it was only when I saw the suspect in court, that I would demand justice.”

The case was charged to Samuel Ilori Court, Ogba, Lagos State. Before they went to court, Tina collected N10,000 from Salisu to charge the case to court.

“After that, she disappeared from the court premises. Hours later, the court asked us to go and return the following day, that Tina had not registered the case. Tina came later and promised that she and the suspect would be in court the following day. She asked us to get to the court by 7am. The following day, she didn’t come to court until 11am,” Salisu explained.

The widow said that while they were waiting and watching, Tina and Raymond arrived on a motorcycle. Salisu alleged that Tina slowed her movement, allowing Raymond to fall behind.

Raymond suddenly bolted, jumped onto the same motorcycle that brought them, and the cyclist zoomed off.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/for-filthy-lucre-police-truncate-defilement-rape-cases-deny-victims-justice-part-one/

Without humans, there is no devil. This is why I do not totally condemn jungle justice. Jungle justice is the best for a case like this. Area boys would have burnt the man to ashes. May God console the woman and her daughter.

I don't know the assured accuracy of this story,but there are some basic truths I may not dispute:
(1)Nigerian policemen & women live,breath and work on bribes,until the case gets exposed & they know their careers are on the line.
(2)Nigerians too can lie to twist a story to suit their narrative
(3)It's not unheard of and unusual to find some Nigerian mother's trade their daughters sexually to get direct or indirect monetary favors from the men the girls are sleeping with.
I feel all 3 of the above occurred and the girl is just the unfortunate victim of the morass the Nigerian police,family and society has fallen into.