Children from divorced homes in Adamawa State are subjected to rape, molestation, and death threats from stepfathers and stepmothers they are forced to live with, after their parents remarried and brough in total strangers as partners to live with them.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that Adamawa State Ministry of Women Affairs, recorded 149 cases of rape against women and girls in 2021 between January and October, while the Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) data indicated 180 cases (136 female and 44 male survivors) of sexual abuse/violence against children (below 18 years) same year.
Listed among so many cases of rape in the state, is a 1-year-old girl (name withheld), whose stepfather, one Idi Adamu, a 30-year-old resident of Wuro Ardo in Mubi North Local Government Area (L.G.A), was arrested by the police for allegedly raping her.
The case saw the light of the day after her mother, who doubled as the wife of the suspect, reported at the police station.
Similarly, one David Gaius, living in Song L.G.A, continuously raped his 17-year-old stepdaughter since 2020 when she was 14-year-old.
The Adamawa State Police spokesman, Suleiman Nguroje, had said the suspect confessed to the offence, and also claimed that it was the devil that pushed him to mix charms in meat to serve him and his stepdaughter to eat in order to attract her to him.
He however ran out of luck when his wife caught him red-handed having sex with the girl, but he told his wife that he was acting on the instructions of a native doctor.
Meanwhile, the teenage girl also claimed that he always used white handkerchief to clean her private part each time he raped her.
Again, in 2020, police in Adamawa arrested Obiora Patrick, a 39-year-old man residing at No. 46 Hospital Road, Jimeta, Yola North L.G.A for allegedly raping his 9-year-old stepdaughter.
However, cases of child molestation or ill-treatment is not peculiar to stepfathers alone in Adamawa, as stepmothers too are culpable.
On 15th May 2024, the Police Command arrested a 23-year-old stepmother, one Rachel Geoffrey, a resident of Federal Housing Estate, Girei L.G.A, on 14th May 2024 for burning the hands of her two stepchildren.
The police spokesman told THE WHISTLER that the victims- Genesis Geoffrey (7 years) and Ijadai Geoffrey (3 years)- faced “several calculated acts of cruelty and human rights violations” from their stepmother after the separation of their mother from their father.
He said the children’s stepmother came in one day and discovered that the food she reserved for her husband was eaten by her two stepchildren.
“On discovering that, instead of her to cook another one for her husband, she now used handkerchiefs and tied their hands and set fire to them. With their hands tied there was no way they could untie themselves, so they ran to neighbours who helped in putting off the fire, but before then, already the fire had eaten their hands,” he explained to THE WHISTLER.
Nguroje said the father of the children could not do anything when he came back and heard what happened, stressing that the love he had for his wife stopped him from taking any punitive action.
“Last month, prior to this one, I equally paraded a husband and wife, but this time around, it was the father that killed his 9-year-old daughter,” Nguroje stated.
Narrating the incident that led the man to kill his daughter, the police spokesman said the father of the 9-year-old girl claimed that she used to attack him spiritually in his dream- something he alleged her mother also used to do before he divorced her.
“The father now carried a robe, tied the girl’s hands, tied her legs and dropped her under the sun for hours. So, when the robe became so tight blood stopped circulating, coupled with her being under the sun, you know how Adamawa sun is, she now became unconscious. Already, before she was brought to us, she was pronounced dead.
“Now the father and the step mother who accused her of being a witch were arrested. As I’m talking to you now, they are both in court,” Nguroje revealed.
In another similar case, the state’s police command in a press statement on 1st July 2021 said it arrested one Aisha Mohammed, an 18-year-old stepmother residing at Wuro Patuji village in Mubi South L.G.A , for inserting hot iron into the private part of her 5-year-old stepdaughter.
According to the police, “Investigation reveals the suspect, being the second wife to the victim’s father, committed the offence by using hot iron (rod) to torture and inflict injury on the private parts of the baby because she discharged urine on her bed.
“The wicked stepmother was arrested by the police in Mubi South Local Government Area following a report received from Aisha Abdullahi (mother of the victim) and Barrister Khadija Nasir, a female lawyer.”
According to a report published in 2022, the National Human Rights Commission recorded 266 cases of human rights violations in Adamawa State, with 70 percent being sex and gender-based violence.
A senior Legal Officer at the Commission, Fatima Manadara, said the 266 cases reported during that period included domestic violence, defilement, sexual abuse, unlawful arrest and detention and parental negligence, among other things.
However, due to the prevalence of the menace, the British Council in 2018 established a centre for the treatment and rehabilitation of victims of sexual assault and rape in the state.
The centre, called the Adamawa Hope Centre, is located within the Adamawa State Specialist Hospital in Yola.
After Their Parents Remarried, Step Children Are Becoming Victims Of Sexual Violence In Adamawa State is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
