The rape by a14-year old

While rape is usually perpetrated by older men or at least from late teens upwards, it is shocking that a 14-year old boy who should be concentrating on his studies or if he must, be obsessed with games like football or computer game, raped a nine-year old girl and it led to her death. According […]

While rape is usually perpetrated by older men or at least from late teens upwards, it is shocking that a 14-year old boy who should be concentrating on his studies or if he must, be obsessed with games like football or computer game, raped a nine-year old girl and it led to her death.
According to a newspaper report on Wednesday, the police in Lagos were investigating the death of the nine-year old girl caused by the alleged consistent rape by a 14-year-old student, Onyi Adimabua, in the Ikorodu area of the state.
The father of the 14-year old Andrew Adimabua, said, “I trained that boy in the way of the Lord and expected so much from him. He has confessed to the act; there is nothing to hide. He told me that he learnt about sex by watching blue (pornographic) films.”
What had me thinking about this case was the confession the boy made of watching pornography to the extent of making him commit the heinous crime of rape against a nine-year old. This should make every parent think about their children; both as potential offenders and victims.
You may have trained your child to the best of your ability, but along the line, he may meet some friends to influence him to do things that he knows would not be acceptable to you and against everything you believe in.
Then apart from friends and peer pressure that people usually blame for their children’s misconduct, is the internet that anybody can now have access to, even by using mobile phones. So controlling our children is becoming more difficult.
This is more so, while some wealthy parents provide all the latest gadgets to their children that they can browse and watch anything, some not so rich kids are not really left out, and they can use phones and other means like watching pornography in DVD.
Few years ago someone told me that some youths in Kano used to converge around one business centre that was very efficient in the night to browse pornographic films in their phones. Somebody later raised alarm.
But as parents whatever your child does comes back to you and as such whatever crime he commits, you are going to be blamed even if you have brought him up the ‘right way’.
So, particularly in this case, what are parents going to do to prevent their sons from becoming sexual predators, committing an offence far beyond their ‘innocent’ age?
It is a known fact that a lot of parents go to work and return late, some without making adequate guidance arrangements for their children while they are away. So the children left with housemaids whatever they like. Some are even left to fend for themselves alone.
But it is not always at home that these offences take place, because the case of this 14-year old boy might have taken place in school. The story quoted the victim’s father, Simeon Jigo as saying that Onyi is the son of the proprietor of the school his daughter attended.
Children are the responsibility of their parents, so no matter how busy you may be, you should find time to find out your child’s friends and what he or she is up to.
And the instilling of values should be kept in cautioning our children to desist from anti-social behaviours and criminal acts.
Though some parents believe that as soon as their children start to grow up they should be allowed to do as they please, because they don’t want to snoop on them and be strict. But some become wild and degenerate into social nuisance. Even adults need caution, much less teenagers.
The government should do something on the open sale of pornographic films in our markets among other things to curb this impending danger in our homes and the society at large.
Then the last but by no means the least, the law against rape should be swift and strict, so strict that a potential offender would think twice before committing it.