A 48-year-old man, Mr. Chidi Chilaka from Mbaise in Imo State has been arrested for raping a year and ten months old baby, child of Mr. & Mrs. Monday Nnamdi. He also raped the family’s 10-year-old house help in Ezeogba, Emekuku, Owerri, Imo State. Narrating the incident, the mother of the baby, Mrs. Nkechinyere Sarah Monday stated that she usually leaves her baby in the care of her ten-year-old house help every time she goes for business. One day, she came back and noticed that her baby, Kamsiyochukwu was consistently crying despite everything done to pacify her. Moreover, the baby could no longer sit down and every time she tried sitting her down, she would let out a loud wail. This worried her.
She complained to her husband, Mr. Monday Nnamdi about the baby’s predicament, which according to her deserves more attention. This time around, as the baby cried, she would be pointing at her private part. This made her mother to closely examine the baby’s vagina and discovered that there was an odour oozing from there and there was also some dried substance that looked like feces in it. Using hot water to clean the substance, she further discovered that it was clotted blood. She, at this point summoned the house help to inquire about the cause of what she observed but the house help denied knowledge of anything. The deeply worried mother took the baby to Holy Rosary Hospital in Emekuku where they discovered that the baby has been infected with acute staphylococcus. It was also confirmed that it must have been as a result of sexual assault.
Back home, Mrs. Monday confronted the house help once again and this time threatened her after which she confessed that the baby was severally raped by a man down the street. She narrated that some time in April, one Mr. Chidi Chilaka approached her and took her to his house to assist her in doing some work. In the process, the man lured her into one of the rooms in his house forced her to lie down and raped her. After doing that, according to the girl, he brought out a white handkerchief and used it to dab at her vagina. He observed that there was no bloodstain on the handkerchief. Mr. Chilaka warned the 10-year-old house help not to tell anyone what transpired and threatened her of killing her if she did. The man repeated this rape with the house help but each time, he used the white handkerchief to clean the girl’s vagina, there would be no blood stain on it. He instructed the house help to bring her baby cousin to him promising to give her the sum of N10,000. He also made the girl swore an oath of secrecy.
When the parents of the baby had gone out for business, the house help took the baby to the man who sexually assaulted the one-year-old baby. After the rape, he as usual cleaned the baby’s vagina with a white handkerchief and this time noted that there was blood on it. He took the handkerchief away. The house help kept this information to herself till the time the baby’s mother confronted her after the discoveries on her baby. On the 29th of April, Mr. Chidi Chilaka was arrested by the police pending investigation into the matter.
Information getting to The Qoheleth revealed that ritualists are on the prowl in some communities in Owerri. What is trending is the use of the blood coming out of virgins’ private parts for ritual purposes.
The family of the baby, from information gathered do not have money to give the baby adequate medical attention. They may not even have the finance to prosecute the case against Mr. Chilaka. The father of the baby, Mr. Monday appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid especially in ensuring that the culprit is brought to book on the heinous crime he committed on their baby.
A Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Boniface Duru on hearing the sad story intervened in the situation. He has provided some funds for the treatment of the baby and also hired two lawyers to appear for the baby and family. He called on well meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of Mr. Monday’s family and to ensure that the culprit is brought to book.
