Has ‘Action Governor Nyesom Wike’ become too engrossed in his presidential pursuit that a fire is raging in his backyard he is not quenching it in his usual style; or has he become so overwhelmed by the cancer of rape in Rivers State he is pretending not to be aware of it?
These are the puzzling questions before residents as Wike’s female professional colleagues are lamenting over the virulent cases of teachers raping female, underage girls in the oil-rich state.
The nauseating incidents are, however, not moving some residents, who say such rapings are not a new phenomenon. But who will bell the cat?
The International Federation of Women Lawyers raised an alarm over the rise in cases of teachers sexually abusing their students in the state.
The Chairperson of FIDA in Rivers State, Ms. Adata Bio-Briggs, told journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, that between January and April 2022, over 50 cases of teachers defiling their students had been reported and charged to court.
And that may just be the tip of the iceberg because in most cases, silence remains the case for victims, based on pressure from family members or other sources, in this state that has become known as what an observer described as a “highly sexualised environment.”
But on her part, Bio-Briggs said some of the recent cases were recorded in Ahoada, Elelenwo and Rumuokuta areas of the state, even as she commended the police for promptly prosecuting many of the cases, which she described as disheartening.
“It is sad and disheartening that we have a lot of students that have been defiled by their caregivers and teachers. We presently have a case from Ahoada; a seven year-year-old child defiled by her teacher. We have another case of a child somewhere in Elelenwo that was also defiled by her teacher.
“We have another one in Rumuokuta, where the child was also defiled by her teacher. So, we have a lot of cases of teachers defiling people they are supposed to be caregivers to. This year alone, we have had more than 50 defilement issues. All the matters of children being defiled by their teachers have been charged to court,” the FIDA chairperson said.
She, however, said FIDA was faced with the challenge of obstruction of prosecution processes by family members of victims.