By Angela Mbaocha
13year old rape victim, from Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi State, has narrated what she passed through in the hands of his master who is about 70yrs of age and a senior lecturer in Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo, (AE-FUNAI).
The victim simply identified as Joy, in an exclusive interview with our correspondent revealed that the suspect, Felix Anyaegbunam, is from Anambra state, and his wife lives in Nsukka and is said to be a professor in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, while most of his children are Doctoral Degree holders according.
This minor said the number of times she was raped by her master was uncomfortable, because the suspect was feasting on her almost every day.Joy’s battle abintio was a lone one as her parents after knowing that she was being molested every night, told her to endure because they don’t have money to train her in school.
But being a brave girl, she never gave up, instead she devised another means of letting her voice be heard. She approached her teacher and told her all that she was passing through in the hands of her master for about five months now.
This time around her voice was heard and the case was reported to Ebonyi State Human Rights Defendants, (HURIDE) and the organization took the matter to the police, and the University senior lecturer was arrested and still detained at the time of this report.
During the interview, Joy stated: “I woke up in June naked and Prof. was lying naked beside me and I saw blood that stained the bedsheet. In the morning I told my father he took me to a laboratory where they conducted pregnancy test on me. The nurse told me I was not pregnant, but she said I have lost my virginity. I didn’t understand what she meant by that. When I got to school the next day, I asked my Aunty what it means to lose ones virginity, she now explained it to me.
“I started seeing my period the same June and I told my school teacher about it. My school teacher came with me to the house and told him that I’m now seeing my mensuration.
“After my school teacher left, that night he started coming to my room every night and be doing what I don’t like. I told my father severally that the man was sleeping with me he said I should continue staying there because he doesn’t have money to train me in school. That no one else will accept me in his house and train me to university level as the Prof. promised.
“I stayed till when I couldn’t endure it anymore, I went to my school teacher and told her what I was passing through. She reported the incident to our HPM who then reported it to Human Rights Defendants, that was how Police got to know about it.
“I was taken to the police station where I made my statement. After that, some police officers came back with me and Prof. was arrested. But to my greatest surprise, he came back the same day. I asked my dad what happened, he told me that the man will report back the next day.
“The next day he was detained and police told me to park all my things to my father’s house who is a gate man in the compound and I did so.
“I’m 13yrs old but he tells people that I’m 15 yrs old. I’m supposed to be in JSS 3, but when I came to his house, he put me in primary 3, now I’m in primary 5. I have stayed with him for 2yrs now. I help him to take care of his 2yr-old son. The child was birthed by my aunt, my mother’s younger sister who was brought by my father to come and serve him and he got her pregnant.
“I didn’t know when he slept with me in June, I don’t know if he gave me something to drink. I just woke up and saw him lying naked beside me. I also saw blood stain on the bedsheet. But in August I became aware of what was happening, because by this time he has started coming to my room at exactly 2am. This made me not to sleep. He made it an everyday affair. It was that August I started reporting to my dad, my mom who is in the village and my school teacher. It was this November that the police got to know about it.
“When I started reporting him, even the barrister who took my aunt’s case when he impregnated her, came also to tell him what I said, but he kept denying it. He was told to say the truth else the matter would be taken to court, but he refused. I was asked to go for another test to be sure that he didn’t infect me with any disease.
“The number of times he slept with me are uncountable. There is how the flat is, I was scared to shout by that 2am he normally comes.
“I can’t go back to him again, instead I will stop school. I want justice, I want him to be prosecuted and convicted. Because if he is allowed to go scot-free he will still molest another child. My sister was 17yrs when he got her pregnant. After delivery she ran away, then my dad brought me from the village to be baby sitting the boy who is now 2yrs. When he discovered that I have exposed him he started making arrangements for another person who will come and stay with him by the end of this November.
“He said after training me in school that he will marry me. He is 70yrs the same age with my father.
“My mother started believing me small when she saw my breast seriously coming out. The man has not bought even singlet for me, the things I wear are the clothes I came from the village with. “He thought I won’t be able to speak up.
My school fee is N2, 250. According a statement by Rights Defendants in Abakaliki, signed by the Chairman EB HURIDE, Sampson Oko Nweke, a Senior Associate of the Masses, (S.A.M) when the girl’s father was interrogated, he admitted that the daughter had reported the rape incident severally to him, he told the NGO that: “I am shocked and disappointed. I am the gate man in the compound where the Prof lives. My daughter has been complaining to me about what Prof is doing to her and I have always told Prof that what he is doing is not good.
“This professor did the same thing to my wife’s kid sister who I brought to live with him as a house help in 2017. But we didn’t know that, prof was was having sex with the girl and later got her pregnant. That time, she was 17years and was in class five in secondary school but when the professor impregnated her, she dropped out of school.
“That time, Human rights people came into the matter and called the police but Prof quickly went to the girl’s village with wine, wrapper and money and deceived them that he wanted to marry her. The mother of the girl came to the police with Prof and helped him destroy the case. But after a while, she gave birth to her baby, the Prof collected the baby and sent the girl away”. The baby boy is still living with Prof now but that girl is hawking groundnuts in Abakaliki.
“It was when there was nobody to take care of the little child in Prof’s house that I went to the village and brought this my little daughter to come and look after the child.
While the first victim, Joy’s aunt in her personal testimony of what transpired between her and the Senior Lecturer, to HURIDE blamed her sister’s husband for bringing his daughter into the house of the same man who put her into suffering.
Meanwhile, it was discovered that the suspect who was believed to be a Professor of Geophysics, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics, In AE-FUNAI.
Although the institution condemned the act, but noted that the issue was yet to be reported to them officially.
According to the Human Rights Defendants, the suspect at first denied committing the crime,” but later admitted, albeit reluctantly and incoherently. He, at the same time pleaded for peace and blamed everything on Satan”.
However, the victim must be highly commended for being courageous enough to speak to her school teacher even when her parents abandoned her.Every girl child who is being molested is encouraged by the article to speak up, not to keep quiet, because the more such wicked crime is swept under the carpet, it gives the molester the courage to keep defiling more minors.
On the part of the parents, they should also be prosecuted for aiding such heinous crime against their own daughter. They are as guilty as the perpetrator. If they had taken action Joy wouldn’t have been subjected to such inhuman treatment.
Our judiciary is expected to ensure justice is served in this matter. Dr.Anyaegbunam, should not be allowed to be around minors because his previous action and the current one are clear indication that he is a threat to minors.
It’s also expected that the University where he teaches takes disciplinary action against.
All hands must be on deck if we want to succeed in the fight against rape.
