Rape cases increase as 12-year-old is gang-raped in Lagos

The past fortnight has been filled with sad stories of young girls and women being assaulted and raped across Nigeria. These include Vera Omozuwa in Edo State and Barakat Bello in Oyo State, both of whom died from the assault.

The latest victim is a 12-year-old girl in Ajah, Lagos. She was raped by four masked men in her home on Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Family sources and the police confirmed the ugly incident to our correspondent on Saturday morning.

According to a family member who did not want his name published because of stigmatisation, the pupil was not only raped but also brutalised.

“She has gone for medication and necessary treatment has been done. We have also informed the police about the matter,” our source disclosed.

“She was at home having her online class when the sad occurrence took place. It is a bad experience for her.”

This newspaper gathered that the 12-year-old victim had bruises and tear in her virgina which led to massive bleeding.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the Lagos police spokesperson, Bala Elkana, he confirmed the attack.

“It was a sad incident. She was in the house with her father. When it was time for her to start her online class as COVID-19 mandated, the father discovered that there was no fuel in the generator. So, he said let him quickly go get fuel”

“Immediately he left, the rapists jumped into the fence to carry out the attack, they covered their face during this period so, she could not identity them.

“As a matter of fact, the state commissioner of police has asked the gender unit of the force to investigate the matter. Like we’ve achieved before now, we will apprehend them and make sure they face the rot of law,” the police boss said.

The latest case happened barely 48 hours after 18-year-old Barakat Bello was gang-raped and murdered by unknown assailants in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Ms Bello was a student of Department of Science Laboratory Technology (SLT), Federal College of Animal Health and Production in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

It also occurs days after a female undergraduate of the University of Benin, Vera Omozuwa, died in a hospital after she was allegedly raped and assaulted in a church premises in Benin, the Edo State capital.

Activists have been calling on Nigeria authorities to deal more effectively with rapists through the strict enforcement of existing laws and promulgation of tougher sanctions.

On Friday, a coalition of civil society organisations and human rights activists held peaceful protests in the Federal Capital Territory and Lagos demanding a state of emergency to be declared on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Nigeria.

The protest which took place at the police headquarters in both cities followed a perceived rise in the number of rape cases in Nigeria including the recent deaths of two rape victims.