By Ishaya Ibrahim
Prevention they say is better than cure. On September 30, CEE-HOPE, non-governmental organisation dedicated to the protection of children especially in slum communities, decided to do just that.
To prevent many other children from suffering the fate of the 13 year-old Elizabeth Ochanya that was raped to death allegedly by Victor Ogbuja and his father Andrew, the NGO organised a workshop in Lagos that was attended by the media, school owners and organisations involved with children.
Ochanya died on October 17 from health complications arising from a rape spree that lasted for five years in her aunt’s home while staying there to get an education because there was no school in her parents’ community.
She was only eight when the aunt’s son allegedly raped her, then the father, the 51year old Catholic knight and senior lecturer in the Department of Catering and Hotel Management replaced the son in the sordid act.
A prominent child rights activists and psychologists, Princess Olufemi-Kayode said child sexual abuse is one of the most pervasive social problems faced by the society whose impact is profound.
“Research evidence has found that early victimization places persons at risk of subsequent psychological problems.
“The specific types of long-¬term effects of childhood sexual abuse have also been documented in clinical and non-clinical populations.
“High rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, dissociative disorders, interpersonal dysfunction, sexual related disorders, self¬-destructive behaviour, vulnerability to future victimization, become abusers and suicidality have all been identified to varying degrees among women and men who survive childhood sexual abuse,” she said.
Ochanya’s elder brother, Ameh John Ejekwonyilo, was also at the workshop to give the experience of the pain his family had to endure during the tragic death of his sister.
“On behalf of my family, we wish to unequivocally state that our quest for justice is not borne out of vengeance. For us, no amount of punishment which ought to be handed to the alleged culprits if found guilty, will be deemed adequate to the pains and torture our little baby had been subjected to for several years.
“The logic of our quest for swift justice, like other well-meaning individuals and organisations from across the length and breadth of the country, is to ensure that with justice, little girls and vulnerable women within our community in particular and Nigeria as a whole will be safer from the pandemic of sexual violence. We are convinced that this is why Nigerians and the world are united in demanding for justice for Ochanya,” he said.
A book, ‘#JusticeForOchanya: Reflections on the Child Sexual Abuse Crisis in Nigeria’ was also launched on the same day.
CEE-HOPE founder, Betty Abah said the book tells the story and the reactions that followed since the untimely death of the minor.
“It goes beyond her individual tragedy to situate her death and the continuing travails of her family and sympathizers in Nigeria and beyond, within the broader ugly canvas of a nation that yet pays lip service to Child Rights and for whom the Ochanya case is a most definite litmus test. Will she get justice? She has to and very quickly too,” Abah said.
