Locked Down with Their Rapists

This programme contains words that are sexually graphic.

Clip: Based on the advice of the Federal Minister of Health and NCDC. I’m directing the cessation of all movements in Lagos in the FCT for an initial period of 14 days.

Narrator: That is Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari announcing the first round of restrictions in the country.

You are listening to lock down with a Rapist, a documentary by investigative journalist Banjo Damilola, she travelled to Cross River State in southern Nigeria. There, she spoke with children who were raped during the lockdown, some as young as four. Their names have been changed to protect their identity.

When authorities closed schools in March 2020, they did so in an attempt to flatten the surging curve of the novel Coronavirus ravaging the world. When President Buhari announced the first round of restrictions that month, COVID-19 had already killed nearly 40,000 people globally, including two in Nigeria. But what many probably did not envisage was that countless number of children across the country became soft targets for sexual assault and rape.

Victim: It was last August, 2020. My dad sent me to go buy groundnut and sugar for him

Narrator: 15 year old Isabel is preparing to take her West Africa Senior School Certificate exam. She’s also trying to forget what’s happened to her in August 2020. Isabel was 14 when she was accosted on her streets by three men. She knew them from the neighbourhood and greeted them sometimes, but on that August evening, they blocked her path with a gun and a knife against an unthreatening teen girl.

Victim: I went with one of my neighbours, a boy. When coming back, they ran after me, then they pursued the boy and one of them pointed a gun at me and the other showed me this small knife saying if I shout or do anything they would kill me there. They then grabbed me to one of their houses and the three of them slept with me.

Narrator: The men left her bleeding and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone. She did not have to say anything; the blood stains were hard to hide.

Victim: My daddy went to their compound and all of them, the three of them ran away. I was inside the car because I was feeling pains and was bleeding at that moment. It was in the morning my daddy took me to the hospital and gave me a doctor’s report that we took to the police station.

Narrator: Isabel says it was the most harrowing experience of her life. It is an episode she shares with thousands of other girls who were raped and molested during the lockdown. Celia had an almost identical experience with Isabel in an office room where noise from a generator and passing vehicles brought in through the windows.

Reporter: Can you tell me your story?

Victim: My closest neighbour, he’s just like an uncle to me. I never knew he had such an intention in mind.

Narrator: It started out like any normal school free day. Celia went into the home of Michael Agu. The man who allegedly raped her. As she had done many times before, she had grown fond of Agu and his family in those months, and would often past time with them watching TV or playing board games in their apartment. It was a cordial relationship, she says, of a type that grows out of a communal setting when people share household items like pockets, and rely on each other for safety and companionship. When weeks of school closure turned into months, with no end in sight. Agu promised to take Celia to his office for a change of scenery. On a weekday, he invited her in the presence of his wife and that raised no suspicion for celia.

Victim: When he took me to his complex, he told me to wait for him there and he left. He came back and he brought this fearless energy drink but he told me I should take the drink and the pepper soup since I’m coming to his workplace for the first time. When I drank it, I didn’t know that he had dropped something and I felt dizzy. That was how he slept with me.

Narrator: That is the last thing Celia remembers before dozing off. She is not sure how long she slept in the storeroom where Agu o had begun entertaining her earlier that day. Reporter: When you woke up, how did you realise that this had happened?

Victim: I noticed I was bleeding. That period, I was not myself because I was very weak Narrator: Disoriented as she was, Agu led her to the roadside, hailed a cab and sent her home. Celia still hadn’t fully grasped what had happened to her.

Victim: I didn’t even know that he had slept with me. It was when I went to my nurse and I told her what happened. She took me to the teaching hospital to confirm what had happened.

Narrator: Eugene is the grandmother of four year old Laurel, who was raped by her septuagenarian grand uncle.

Victim’s grandmother: Where they were supposed to be, they were not there. as at that time if they were answering, most of these things that happened may have not happened. Laurel and her grandma spoke with banjo in the office of Basic Rights Council Initiative. A not-for-profit that advocates for children and women’s rights.

Reporter: What are you watching?

Narrator: It was grandma Eugene who saw Laura come out of Ekanem Bassey flat, holding her private parts. confusion written on her face. Eugene took the little girl to the hospital, where it was confirmed that she was raped. Ekanem Bassey is grandma’s first cousin, he has 13 grandkids of his own. That hurts grandma Eugene As much as the act itself. She cannot understand how someone so close and so old could do that to a child, much less one in his family.

Victim’s grandmother: Maybe he heard me when I came out or when people greeted me. He then pushed himself out. If not, knowing me, he would have been dead.

Narrator: Banjo visited Bassey in the Calabar Correctional Centre, where he is being held pending trial. She was not allowed to record the interview per prison rules. Bassy is a retired soldier who says he was part of various peacekeeping missions. In prison he is called “old soldier”. When asked why he confessed to the crime earlier, he said this was the condition his cousin Laural’s grandma gave for his release.

Narrator: Back at BRCI office, grandma is protective of Laura. She speaks in a whisper to prevent the little girl from remembering what is being discussed.

Is Little Laura going to forget everything? One cannot say definitively. According to Ifunanya Chukwueke, a developmental psychologist at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Psychologist: Adult age for retention is not general. The child may not be able to say exactly when something happens. It’s possible the child doesn’t remember but possibly have flashbacks when they encounter something like that in the future,, but it also depends on the cognitive developmental level of the child.

Lawyer: Remember when we were having interviews, preparing her for her matter in court. She wasn’t talking. We pleaded and begged. We tried to make her talk.

Narrator: Patience Agala. She has spent her years of practice as a lawyer helping to prepare traumatised rape victims, including toddler like Laura testify in court. She was the one who took Laura out of the room during the interview.

victim: so it was in the course of playing with her that she said something. She said he carried long long fingers and put it in my… that was when it was still fresh.

Narrator: That was over a year ago. The case was stalled when court staff across the country went on strike in 2021. The presiding judge has since retired. With these delays Agala worries if Laura will be able to give any useful evidence when the case comes up again, considering the fact that our grandma has been shielding her from anything that will trigger her memory.

Reporter: If you have a case where the child is unable to recollect, what’s the implication of that?

Judge: Long sigh! The child does not say anything?

That’s former Justice A. O Eta, he bowed out before he could conclude the case between Laura and Bassey.

Judge: You need to get everything you, have a medical report, and have the evidence of the accused. Normally there are no eye witnesses, you just piece them together, and may come up with some sort of evidence. or what the accused person says may implicate them.

Narrator: Sexual assault is not peculiar to Cross River, the Lagos State Domestic Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) recorded one thousand, seven hundred and eighty cases of sexual violence against children 17 And under in 2020. According to the organisation, more than half of those children were between the ages of two and nine. Muhammad Adamu is Nigeria’s former Inspector General of Police. He says there was an increase in the number of sexual violence cases reported during the lockdown. According to him 717 Rape incidents were recorded between January and May 2020. In Lagos, the number of cases recorded in the first three months of lockdown by the DSVRT declined due to restrictions in movement. That changed, said Titilola Vivor-Adeniyi, the coordinator of the state sexual violence Response Team.

DSVRT coordinator: In July we launched our toll free line 08000 333 333. We did quite a lot of advocacy. So we had a lot of community engagement, social media interactions and all of that. So we expected that we would see an increase in reporting. Obviously we did not know it was going to be as much as that.

Narrator: James EBO is the principal counsel at BRCI. He says his organisation has tried to provide assistance to as many survivors as the code during the lockdown. since the NGO was founded 11 years ago. It has handled 870 cases, and more than 77 people have been housed in its shelter with very limited resources. EBO is unable to help everyone as quickly as he wants.

Principal Counsel: It was even very traumatic because there was the time for two straight weeks that our office was locked, so we couldn’t even provide service. And we tried to provide counselling or phone, how do you provide a counsellor on phone to a survivor who is in an environment that was not safe. There is a child who is currently in our safe space whose abuse actually started? She’s 18. Now but have you started during the lockdown when she was 17 by her father, by her father. And in the same house with her mother. This is her biological father.

That was the case for many girls who were unable to get the help they needed during the lockdown. And sadly, too, we had people, more people calling or during the lockdown that they’ve been sexually assaulted by their parents or stepfathers. The number of those calls increased. And sadly we cannot respond to all.

Narrator: Survivors of sexual violence still face stigma globally. And when they are minors, their parents might also share in the trauma.

Victim’s parent: For me, I did not sleep for days, I mean weeks because I could not imagine that kind of thing happening. The trauma was just too much. I will sleep and wake up thinking what kind of trouble is this.

Narrator:That’s grandma Eugene. When nine year old Jackie was raped, it almost caused a rift between her parents. Her mother shared the story.

Victim’s parent: I was passing through a lot because her father puts the blame on me that I cannot take care of her.

Narrator: We are not sharing Jackie’s mother’s name to protect the little girl who was raped by her neighbour Effiong Bassey.

Victim’s parent: I was not happy. I was so sad that this is an only child for now. Upon all the suffering for her and this kind of thing happened. I wasn’t happy.

Narrator: Jackie suffered vaginal prolapse is a condition that occurs when the bladder or uterus falls into the vagina or when the rectum pushes into the vagina. When Banjo spoke to Jackie and her mother, she crawled to her mom like she was afraid of strain. When her mother changed seats to move closer to the fan in the room she followed. Despite looking timid and scared, Jackie was firm in her recollection of the painful episode she lived through

Victim: I went to throw away the dustbin and someone was dragging me inside the bathroom. When I entered, I saw the person’s face and he said if I shout, he will cut me with the knife.

Victim Parent: That day, she did not tell me. Friday evening when I came back from my outing, she said mommy mommy come, I want to show you something my pee pee is red. Saturday morning she started bleeding.

Narrator: Advocate say fear of harm is a common reaction among sexual assault survivors, especially if they are young and vulnerable.

Jackie Rapist was released on administrative bail by the police command in Cross River State. According to her mum, the police officer handling the case, tried to pressure the family to settle out of court. Unknown to them Effiong Bassey was released soon after, Cross River State does not have a sexual offence register. So when offenders jump bail or get released from jail, they could move to another community and abuse another child. That is what allegedly happened to four year old Shani.

Clips: He used his penis on her anus

That’s Shani’s mother. The He question is Abasi Abasi, an elderly neighbour who raped her four year old daughter.

Victim’s parent: So we saw injury on the surface but he didn’t go inside for the vagina. he used his finger on her

Narrator: He was caught in the act by neighbours. He was beaten and handed over to the police. Like Effiong Bassey, he was released on bail. Abasi relocated immediately, and has not been seen in the community ever since.

Victim’s parent: I want him to be jailed to learn a lesson. They’ve said it’s not my daughter that is the first person. He has done it to somebody else before coming to my daughter.

Narrator: Isabel, the teenage girl who was raped by three men on her street, like Shani’s, mother wants to see her accusers jailed for their crime.

Victim: I just want them to face the consequences immediately because they will go and do it to another person so they should face the music

Narrator: Some survivors will receive support from NGOs like BRCI, and have state governments prosecuting their case. Thoughts of justice might make the pain easier to live with, but not always.

You’ve been listening to lock down with their rapist, a documentary on how minors were sexually abused during the first year of the pandemic.

The road of justice in Nigeria is very long and winding. Over a year has passed since these children were assaulted, and none of them have received respite from the court. Although grandma Eugene tries to protect Little Laura she still has flashes of memory whenever she is close to Bassey’s apartment. Shani’s mother doubts she will ever receive justice for her little daughter. Jackie is no longer her happy self and her mother still carries the stigma. For Celia and Isabel it has been a long protracted legal battle. An experienced that no one more so teenagers should have to go through Reporter: Do people now look at you differently?

Victim: Some people said why would I do that kind of thing, why didn’t I keep it a secret to myself that instead of sending them to prison. that my daddy should withdraw my statement.

Reporter: Do you see your body differently, the way you think about yourself?

Victim: something changed because ever since I was a child, I had that sort of courage to talk whenever my friends are talking. Ever since my pride was taken away, I really don’t have that courage when my friends talk. Sometimes I do feel bad.

Reporter: When you grow up to eventually go to university and everything. What would you like to become?

Victim: A lawyer. That has always been on my mind ever since because I like the way they talk. Mine and my sense is the tiny topic that you cannot own.

Reporter: I mean, I know where you are. You can see it’s very, very difficult. Right? And I’m sorry that happened. It’s not your fault. If there are people telling you that it is your fault. You should know that it’s not your fault, you’re just a child.