Minister of Women Affairs, Barr Uche Kennedy Ohanenye, has resolved to sue the mother of an eight-year-old rape victim in Enugu, Sochimelu, who was molested severally by her stepfather, for negligence.
Ohanenye said the action is in defence of the voiceless victim, whose mother had gone crying to the court to not send her husband to jail, an action that led the court’s magistrate to release the man on bail.
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This is despite a hospital report that shows that the sexual abuse has resulted in sexually transmitted diseases for the victim and the breakdown of her virginal wall.
“We are suing Sochimelu’s mother for negligence, because if she was not negligent, this young girl won’t have suffered sexual abuse for as long as she did, because she couldn’t even tell us how long she had been going through this.
“Yet the mother had the guts to come out and defend the man who did this to her daughter for the sake of keeping her marriage? She shouldn’t have gone to court to defend the husband.”
The minister is further suing the stepfather to pay for his crimes and requesting that justice be done to the victim in order to safeguard her future.
Similarly, the ministry, she said, will write to the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, demanding that the magistrate explain his release of the accused on bail despite evidence corroborating alleged accusations against him.
“The ministry of women affairs, through myself and the director, will go to court on behalf of Sochimelu and other young girls, babies, and women, to sue the woman for negligence. We are also suing the accused, her husband, on behalf of Sochimelu to ensure that he pays for his sin.
“The rule of law must prevail. The truth must prevail. Justice must be done on behalf of this young girl. These are the things that will make her feel better and that will ensure that this incident does not affect her future, particularly if she sees that actions are taken against her abuser.
“We are also going to write to the magistrate of the court in Enugu to explain why he released the stepfather just because the victim’s mother cried that she didn’t want the accused’s husband to go to jail.
“He has to explain to the attorney general and to us why he released such a person despite all the reports corroborating what he did,” she said.
In a related development, Ohanenye is also suing the staff of the National Hospital, Maitama, who were on duty the night of September 23, 2023, when ‘one chance’ victim, Greatness Olorunfemi was brought in for treatment but was locked out of the facility until her death.
A video had surfaced online showing the staff of the hospital locking out the victim, and concerned Nigerians who rushed her to the hospital for treatment.
She likewise noted that the ministry has further written to the Public Complaints Committee of the National Assembly to call on all chief medical directors (CMDs) to address such issues in order to avoid unnecessary deaths of Nigerians.