By Oluwatoyin Malik
An arrested 39-year-old man, John (surname withheld), accused of fondling a toddler’s private part with his fingers, has denied doing so. The suspect said that all he did was to put the child on his laps when she was sleeping, as he had sent her brother, in whose custody she was, on an errand.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the suspect was arrested when the toddler’s mother, Mrs Lateefat Kehinde, reported at Owode Egbado Division that her 15-year-old daughter (name withheld) told her that she got home from shop and met the suspect carrying her three and a half years old sister on his laps in the dark.
Not comfortable with the way she met her younger sister, the teenage girl took her from the man to the family room where the toddler allegedly told her that the man inserted his fingers in her private parts.
Following the report, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Owode Egbado Police Station, CSP Mohammed Suleiman Baba, sent detectives to get the suspect. However, he was discovered to have escaped to an unknown place.
The command’s spokesman, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, told the Nigerian Tribune that the toddler was taken to the General Hospital, Idiroko, where the result showed that her hymen had been ruptured.
The PPRO stated further that antibiotics and other medications were prescribed for the victim.
He added that the suspect was later arrested from where he hid, while the state Commissioner of Police, Frank Mba, ordered that case be transferred to the State Criminal investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation.
The mother of the toddler, Mrs Kehinde, aged 43, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, said: “I went to the motor park where I used to sell food. My elder daughter came back from home that I sent her to and informed me that she met her younger sister on the suspect’s laps, and on the way to their room, her sister told her of how the man was fondling her private parts.
“Before he started doing it, he cunningly sent my son who cares for my daughter while I’m away to buy him bean cake (akara).
“Immediately, I took a bike and went home. I saw my daughter who repeated what her elder sister told me. I took my daughter to the landlady and told her what happened. She carried my daughter and asked her again, and she repeated what she told me.
“When the man was summoned and asked why he did such a thing to a toddler, he denied it. The landlady asked someone to get a doctor or nurse to help check the child. A nurse came and checked my daughter. After she did, she said it showed that the private part was fondled.
“I decided to report at the police station but while on my way there, I was called to come back so that we would settle the matter in-house. I refused, crying that the man had defiled my daughter. My son whom he sent on an errand told him that I don’t like them going out in the night to buy anything but the man begged him, saying that he would appeal to me. That was how he was able to fondle my daughter when her brother was not around. The police thereafter took my daughter to a government hospital where it was confirmed that my daughter’s private part had been violated.”
The victim’s teenage sister, who also spoke, said that her mother sent her home from the motor park to bring something for her. “I met my sister on the suspect’s laps and asked of the whereabouts of my brother who was with our sister. The man told me that he sent him to buy akara. I reminded him that our mother told him not to send any of us on an errand late at night; he replied that he would appeal to our mother.
“He sat in the dark with my sister on his laps. I picked my sister and took her to another neighbour, a female. While going there, my younger sister told me of what the suspect did to her. I went back to my mother and narrated what my sister told me,” the victim’s sister narrated.
However, in an interview with the suspect, he denied touching the toddler. He explained thus: “I am from Akwa Ibom State. I’m a divorcee and the two children I had with my ex-wife are with her. I have been living in Owode since 2012.
“I started squatting with a brother with the same ethnic background. This was because the woman I was living with after I left Kirikiri Prison accused me of attempted rape of my stepdaughter. The police are aware of the case, and I was told to pack out of the house in which we lived together. Since then, I have had nothing to do, no job, nothing. That was why I started squatting with my kinsman.
“The woman whom I parted ways with came to my kinsman’s residence to tell them of what she accused me of. That is why everyone is against me. I did not fondle the girl’s private parts. I’m begging the whole of Nigeria, even pastors, prophets and herbalists to work on my name. The truth will be revealed. If I have a hand in such a thing, let the court find me guilty of death. I didn’t do anything of such. They are just accusing me.”
When asked why he was the only man implicated by the toddler among other men living around the residence, John replied that he usually played with all the children in the compound where he lived and did not understand why this particular child was pointing at him.
“All the children in the compound play with me. Why is this one pointing accusing fingers at me? All the women were at the backyard while a woman sat by my side. The children were playing within the compound. But you know, man thinks like man and God thinks like God. I didn’t do what I’m being accused of. If I tried this thing, let death be my portion.”
He said he had a girlfriend who used to visit him regularly where he was squatting, to make him happy.
“Sometimes, when there was no money, she would bring money to cook for us. On the day this incident happened, she just left me outside. I asked her to call the child’s elder brother to help me buy akara. The brother wanted to take the child along on the errand we sent him but I asked him to bring her to me because she was sleeping. I put her on my laps and she had her pants on.
“Not up to three minutes, the elder sister came and asked of her brother. I told her I sent him on an errand. She carried the young child from my laps. I was shocked when the child woke up and started saying that I did something to her.”
Why I landed in Kirikiri Prison
“I was a dispatch rider at Lekki Phase Two. Along the line, they stole the power bike from me. The agent that took me to the company said that I must buy the bike. Since I have no money or anyone that could help me, I was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment but with an option of fine. Someone I didn’t know later paid the fine and I was released after nine months in the prison.
“Since then, life had been hard for me.”
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