The Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network, a rights organization, has voiced concerns about the placement of a 15-year-old girl (name withheld) at Sawmill, in the Ifako-Gbagada region of Lagos State, after she was allegedly defiled.
The state Ministry of Youth and Social Development’s purported rejection of the mistreated youngster was another issue that the group bemoaned.
According to PUNCH Metro, the girl had been sexually assaulted by the suspect, who went by the name Fred, for two years. She had also reportedly been forced to get an abortion on both occasions that she became pregnant.
The victim’s guardian apparently knew about the crime and sought advice from an auxiliary nurse who carried out the abortion. However, once the rights group reported the event to the Ifako police station, the culprits were taken into custody.
The case manager at ACVPN, Jennifer Nwosu, spoke with a correspondent at Punch on Wednesday and described her difficulties in getting the kid placed in the ministry’s safe home.
Nwosu said that the Ministry’s Child Protection Unit authorities had denied her request even though she had submitted all the requisite paperwork.
She said, “The minor’s shelter status was raised to the Lagos State Ministry of Youth And Social Development, Child Protection Unit, for speedy intervention on Friday 12th April 2024, by our case Manager, while the case was being heard at the Samuel Ilori Court House, Ogba Magistrate Court so that she would have a safe place to stay, avoid tutoring to change her given statements and also keep her on a place where she would get away from the traumatic events.
“The officials whom the case manager called, asked for the charge sheet of the case, a police extract of the case, and a letter from us, stating their role in the matter as required documents to enable them to place the minor in a shelter. They did not take her in that day, as they were rounding off work. The case manager got the stated documents and deposited them in the office of the Permanent Secretary as they had stated to her on Monday, 15th April 2024. I still met with stiff resistance as they said that the document they required was an extract from the Gender unit.”
Nwosu stated that after returning to the ministry with the Police extract document, the officials rejected it as well, stating that the IPO of the case contained no stipulation requesting that the kid be placed in a safe shelter.
She claims that they were told not to call the Gender Unit personnel in order to receive confirmation on the issue, and the request was rejected.
Nonetheless, she urged Bolaji Ogunlende, the ministry’s commissioner, to look into the situation more thoroughly.
In response, Ogunlende clarified that the ministry had not rejected the minor. In a signed statement on Wednesday night, the commissioner stated that the ministry granted the child’s request to return home with her aunt.
The statement partly read, “On the 12th of April, 2024, The Child Protection Unit of the Ministry received a call concerning a potential need for shelter placement for a survivor of sexual abuse. We were informed by the caller that the matter had been reported at the Police Station, and the perpetrators were arrested, investigated, and are under police custody.
“The caller stated further that the Police had released the child to a relative. Because we take such reports seriously, the caller was invited to the office on Monday 15th April 2024 to give more information. The caller came with the survivor and the relative to the office. At that point, the child said she wanted to go home with her aunt while she waited for her mother in the village to pick her up.”
The commissioner went on to say that the caller representative of ACVPN insisted, against the kid’s desires, that the child be placed in a shelter even though the police had released the child to her relatives.
