MRS AJOSE
A four-year-old girl bled for eight days after she was allegedly
raped by her school bus driver, her grandmother, Mrs. T. Ajose, has
said.
Mrs Ajose, a businesswoman, claimed the suspect, Yemi Adesina, committed the act within the school premises.
The suspect, who has been detained at the Panti Police Station in
Adekunle, Yaba, Lagos, allegedly had carnal knowledge of the Nursery II
pupil in a classroom on September 17.
Mrs Ajose told that
The Nation she knew about the incident when she went to fetch her granddaughter after school.
She said: “When I saw her at the school that afternoon, she looked
very dull, so I became curious. I then asked her what the matter was
three times. But she repeatedly said that she did not want to go back to
the school again. When I asked her why, she said she just wanted to go
home. So, at that point, I became worried.”
Mrs Ajose said instead of going home, they went to church, adding:
“When we got to church, she said she wanted to excrete. But before I
could get a potty for her, she had, quite unusual of her, excreted on
her body. I noticed that her excrement was mixed with blood. Ha!, fear
gripped me! I thought it was probably
Jedi jedi (pile). She was
behaving strangely. She neither talked nor ate. She just sat in a
corner within the church premises. About 20 minutes after, I tried to
pet her because she was unusually quiet. But while I carried her on my
laps, I noticed that her pant was soaked with blood. I almost passed
out. I screamed for help out of fear and confusion.
“When I persuaded her to tell me what happened, she said she had been
warned not to tell anyone. I asked her who told her that and she said
Uncle Yemi in her school.”
Narrating what transpired between the victim and the suspect, Mrs
Ajose quoted her granddaughter as saying: “He put me on a table, covered
my mouth and my face with a piece of cloth and put something inside my
bum. But he later cleaned it.“
Ajose, who said she found it hard to believe that her granddaughter
had been raped, stated that she rushed the girl to a hospital, where her
fear was confirmed.
“The following day, when I got to the school, I shouted on top of my
voice. Though my daughter has been attending the school since she was 18
months old, the teachers pretended as if they didn’t know her. Some
residents and passersby who heard my cry intervened and, in the process,
destroyed some of the school’s property out of anger after listening to
my story. Later, we reported the matter at Alagolo Police Station,
Ipaja and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), followed us to the
school. Then, my granddaughter showed us the particular classroom where
the driver had committed the act. The DPO ordered all the male staff in
the school to line up and asked the girl to point at the particular
staff member who did that to her. She pointed at Yemi immediately. The
DPO re-arranged them four times and she still pointed at the same
person. That was how he was arrested and detained at Panti.”
She, however, expressed shock that the school wrote to the Special
Anti- robbery Squad (SARS), claiming that those who vandalised the
school property caused the death of one of its teachers.
Mrs Ajose said: “They wrote in the petition that when residents
entered the school’s premises, the teacher fell on a pavement which led
to her death. But I was told she slumped in her home on
Sallah day while cooking. They never talked about my daughter’s health. They have turned it into a murder case.
“It is really painful. She is the third child of her mother. She has
been living with me since she was five months old. Her siblings also
live me. I keep wondering what attracted him to my granddaughter. I take
her to and from school every day. The man is married and has children.
But I don’t know why he could not use any of them for money ritual or
whatever he intended to do. The school authorities have also threatened
to deal with us, if we don’t drop the case. Why my own granddaughter? I
need justice. Good people of Nigeria should please intervene? Why should
I lie about this? My granddaughter bled for eight days.”
But,
The Nation learnt that the late teacher slumped at her Abesan Estate home in Ipaja, Lagos.
The school’s principal, whose identity could not be ascertained, said she was not authorised to speak on the matter.
The proprietor, Rev. Michael Abodunrin, described the incident as “just an allegation”.
In an interview with
The Nation, he said: “I don’t think I
will make any comment because it is just an allegation yet. The case is
in court already. Our school was vandalised by some residents on
September 18, between 7.30am and 8am in respect of the rape case. The
law enforcement agency will do its job.”
SOURCE
