By Funmi Ajumobi, Abel Kolawole and Charity Ukaegbu

May 21, 2014 certainly is a bad day in a family (names withheld) in Ikotun, Lagos. That was the day they alleged their two-and-a-half -year-old daughter,  simply identified as Precious, was sexually assaulted by an unknown person in school (names withheld) located in Adediran Emiloju Way, Abaranje – Ikotun.

Precious was a  KG 1  pupil of the school. Two separate tests carried out on the infant, according to the father, confirmed the defilement.

The school, however, denied responsibility, prompting the question, ‘Who sexually assaulted Precious?’, especially as the alleged defilement was carried out while the infant was supposed to be in school. To make matters worse, the police to whom the case was reported are said to be delaying investigation under the guise that the tests on  Precious were not carried out in a government hospital.

The police, according to the family, would have preferred the tests conducted at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). But the parents argued that the tests were conducted in another government owned hospital, Igando General Hospital, Lagos, and hence ought to be acceptable to the police.

Investigation into the alleged sexual assault of  Precious, as it were, appears stalled. Narrating the story, the father, frustrated and dejected, said the baby was dropped off in school that morning by her mother, hale and hearty.

He said Precious would not allow anyone to carry her on her way to  and fro school as she preferred  to walk on her own. However, on that day, while returning from school, she was clinging to her mother to carry her and refused to walk by herself.

This action made her mother to be inquisitive but the girl was too withdrawn to say anything. It was when they got home and  her mother wanted to bath her that she noticed that Precious was holding back from allowing her to wash her vagina. In the process of checking her, the mother was said to have noticed a deep scratch on her neck.

At that juncture, she became worried and when the husband returned from office, they decided to take a good look at her  when she would have slept. This they did and, to their  surprise, Precious’ private part  was believed to have been tampered with.

The following morning, the father said they reported the case to the school authorities which denied the alleged sexual assault happened while Precious was in school  “as such a case had  not happened there  before” but the school admitted that the deep scratch  on the infant’s  neck could have been inflicted by her classmate when they were playing.

On the side of Precious, when asked about what happened to her buttocks,  his father said she could only mention ‘uncle’.
The father said she took the baby to the police station in Ikotun to report the case after running a test in  a private hospital confirming that Precious has been defiled but the police advised him to go to a General Hospital for a medical  report which they did at Igando General Hospital.

The medical report, later obtained from Igando General Hospital after tests were carried out on  Precious, read: “Parent seen. Case of suspected sexual assault. Child noticed to have been feeling pain and crying while urinating by the father after being picked up from school.

Examination reveals a young girl (21/2 years old), with scratch marks on  the face, bruises and redness around the eyes, cervical female external genitalia with an obviously breached hymen and wide vagina.”

The report, dated May 30, 2014, was signed by a medical officer at the General Hospital.
The case was said to have been subsequently referred to Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba.

The father’s worry now is that  after a month that the case had been under investigation, the police in Yaba are  telling the family that the tests on the baby should have been done at LASUTH as that is the only hospital which  tests are  acceptable despite the result from a qualified doctor from  Igando General Hospital.