Child advocates in Lagos and Oyo States have joined their voices to call for the re-arrest and persecution of Mr. Essiom Etowa, who allegedly defiled his three-year-old daughter (name withheld) in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Essiom, who works for a construction company, allegedly defiled his daughter twice at midnights of June when the wife, Mrs. Pauline Etowa reported the case at the police station.
This has since left the daughter hospitalised for about 13 days till date at the General Hospital Ibadan. She is said to have vagina infection that makes her pee and poop uncontrollably.
The grievances of the advocates is why the alleged serial paedophile was released on bail knowing that he is a threat to other minors.
A child right advocate, President, JAKIN N.G.O, Mrs. Adebiyi Olubukola, charged the state to arrest the alleged paedophile for viciously raping his own daughter and showing no remorse.
She adds, “The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) arrested him before the mother reported at the station. He was arrested and released on bail.”
She expressed, “He has to be rearrested. This child has been in hospital for days now. She has VVF. We reported the case to WAPA and all, but none has come to visit the mother and the child.”
According to Adebiyi, the construction company Essiom works for got him a lawyer. “They are funding him. What is their interest in the case where a father, their worker, defiled his child. The worse part is that they got him a lawyer”.
On how the criminal act was discovered, the mother of the survivor, Pauline, told journalists in Lagos, “In the first week of June around 10:30pm, I was in the living room watching a programme. I wanted to watch the Big Brother reunion. I went inside to use the toilet when I found my little daughter without her shorts on the bed and the husband standing beside her.”
Pauline continued that later again on June 16 around 5am her husband was no longer in the position he slept with some suspicious attitude.
“The next morning at 10am, I wanted to bathe my daughter and my son when I saw that my daughter’s private tripled more than the first time I saw sperm on her. I rushed her to the general hospital, which confirmed her hymen was broken and she was penetrated.”
“The matter was then reported to the Anti-human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit of the NSCDC where my statement was taken and my husband was arrested.”
“We are still in hospital. My daughter pees, and pees, and pees without control. The hospital did a test and confirmed she has a UTI infection.
The case has since been to court. Advocates from Child Protection Network, CPN, have assured the mother of their total support until justice is served.
