Update on the Unilag Lecturer

    Dr. Akin BaruwaFor nine days, Shola (not real name) was in pain. The abdominal pain she endured felt as if a knife got stuck in her, she toldSaturday PUNCH.She was scared but she had no choice but to endure the pain since she couldn’t imagine telling her parents the unimaginable trauma she had been subjected to that led to the pains she was going through.“How could I face them? How could I tell them that the man they handed me over to, to help process my admission, had raped me?” Shola said.But then, much as she tried, she couldn’t continue hiding her ordeal, especially when the pains had become unbearable. Shola’s parents eventually got to know what their daughter had passed through in the quest of trying to become an undergraduate.Eighteen-year-old Shola is one of the numerous hopeful candidates, wishing to secure admission into the University of Lagos. But her score of 211 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination fell short of the requirement for Mass Communication, which was her choice.Her father, who resided in Abesan Estate in Ipaja area of Lagos, had done all he could to ensure that her daughter would become a university student this year but all his efforts seemed to be futile.“Someone told me to send her UTME registration number.

Unilag lecturer rapes a girl seeking admission

A lecturer in UNILAG, Mr Afeez Baruwa, has been arrested for allegedly raping an 18 year old girl seeking admission.  The young innocent girl who was reportedly raped inside a study room, was seeking admission into the University of Lagos, Akoka. According to The PUNCH, it was gathered that the lecturer, Afeez Baruwa was arrested by the Surulere Police Division on Monday, August 3. The lecturer, however, told the police in his statement that the sexual intercourse was by mutual consent, insisting that he did not rape the victim. It was also learnt that the lecturer and Caroline’s father belonged to the same landlords’ association in the Abesan, Ipaja area.

Man, 45, rapes 14-year-old girl in Lagos

An Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday remanded 45-year-old Santana Obend, charged with rape of a minor, at Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos.The Chief Magistrate, Mr Tajudeen Elias, ordered the remand of the accused in prison pending the determination of his bail application on September 18, 2015.The accused, a security man who lives at 9, Ajegunle Close, Isheri, a suburb of Lagos, was accused of abducting and raping his neighbour’s 14-year-old daughter.He is facing charges of abduction and rape.The police prosecutor, Sgt. Jimah Isegede, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on Aug. 7, 2015, at his residence.“The accused abducted his neighbour’s 14-year-old daughter for three days in his apartment and unlawfully had sexual intercourse with her several times.“All effort for the victim’s parents to see their daughter proved abortive until she was sighted by another neighbour in the apartment of the accused,” he said.According to Isegede, the offence contravened Sections 141(1) and 258(1) of the Criminal Code of Lagos State, 2011.The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.

couple arrested for making a sex slave out of their adoptec child

A couple have been arrested after it was discovered they adopted a 13 year old girl and kept her locked up as a sex slave for 5 years. Rob Johnson and wife, Marie Johnson A middle aged couple, Rob Johnson and his wife, Marie Johnson, were on Tuesday, August 11 arrested for allegedly turning a 13-year-old girl into their sex slave. The couple reportedly took in the then 13-year-old girl to live with them after her mother died and locked her up for five years. 

Arrested for forcing private part in to a four year old girl's mouth

A shameless man is being held in prison in Lagos for allegedly forcing his private part into the mouth of a 4 year old girl.  Rape cases have drastically increased in the country and people should pay more attention to this worrisome situation. A 24 year old, Nwanagbaihu Chinonso, has been arrested and charged by an Isolo Magistrate's Court in Lagos for

couple arrested for sex slavery

A couple have been arrested after it was discovered they adopted a 13 year old girl and kept her locked up as a sex slave for 5 years. Rob Johnson and wife, Marie Johnson A middle aged couple, Rob Johnson and his wife, Marie Johnson, were on Tuesday, August 11 arrested for allegedly turning a 13-year-old girl into their sex slave. The couple reportedly took in the then 13-year-old girl to live with them after her mother died and locked her up for five years. 

A female banker was raped and robbed at gun point by scavengers

A female banker was raped and robbed at gun point by scavengers who sneaked into her car at Mabushi in Abuja. According to the police, the woman was robbed and also brutally raped in the process with a promise never to report the issue to security operatives. The bandits laid an ambush on her in her car along a popular shopping mall in Mabushi. They instructed her to drive the vehicle to a refuse dump where she was robbed and intensely assaulted sexually. A source who spoke to reporters said that the suspects had broken into the woman's car and were waiting for her return to mount the attack.“The woman parked her car opposite NEXT Park and Shop.

11 year old girl who was raped by her step father, has given birth in Paraguay

The crazy rise in rape cases all over the world, has led to an increase in the number of child parents. An 11 year old girl from Paraguay who was raped by her 42-year-old step father identified as Gilberto Benitez Zárate, has just given birth to a baby girl at a Paraguayan hospital, today, August 13. Gilberto who is married to the girl's mother, had gone missing after what he did to the young girl was made public. He was later apprehended and on interrogation, denied raping the girl and demanded a DNA test.

Climate change is forcing Bangladeshi girls into Child Marriage

Senior Researcher, Women's Rights Divisionheatherbarr1DHAKA

—Sanjita had very little to say on the subject of how she felt about getting married. Maybe that’s because she’s 10 years old.  She had married 18 days earlier, to a boy who is 14 or 15 years old—he works in a garment factory in Dhaka and as a rickshaw driver.Her mother Mariam (this and Sanjita’s name are pseudonyms) had quite a bit to say:I don’t have any sons who look after my husband and I. We’re getting old and fall sick all the time. My husband says ‘I can die anytime—before I die I want to make sure I carry out my duty to my daughter.’It’s illegal in Bangladesh for girls to marry before the age of 18, and parents and others who arrange such marriages can face criminal penalties, but Mariam told me, “We’re not very educated so we don’t understand those laws.”It’s not surprising that Sanjita’s parents don’t understand the law well—it’s almost entirely unenforced. After interviewing dozens of married girls, many of them married at ages as young as 10, 11 or 12, their families and community leaders in regions across Bangladesh, I couldn’t find a single case of someone being arrested for arranging the marriage of a child. Human Rights Watch’s research found that some local government officials try to enforce the law, but others supplement their salaries by selling forged birth certificates that allow child marriages to go ahead.That helps to explain why in Bangladesh 29% of girls marry before age 15—the highest rate in the world.

A Step in the Right Direction in the Campaign against Female Genital Mutilation

Somalia’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Human rights has announced that it is planning to introduce a new law banning Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) nationwide.Sahra Mohammed Ali Samatar, Minister of Women Affairs, announced in a conference held in Mogadishu concerning ways of eradicating this practice.Advertisement‘’Time has come for us to eradicate this bad practice and protect the rights of girls and women in our country,’’ She said.FGM is thought to affect up to 140 million women and girls, and is recognised as a violation of human rights.Female Genital Mutilation violates the basic rights of women and girls and seriously compromises their health, posing risks during childbirth, and leaving lasting physical and psychological scars, health experts have said.About 98% of Somali women aged 15-49 have experienced FGM, according to data released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef.The practice is regarded by Somalia’s new constitution as “torture.” Article 15 (4) of the Provisional Constitution stipulates: “Circumcision of girls is a cruel and degrading customary practice, and is tantamount to torture. The circumcision of girls is prohibited.”However, there is no specific law against female circumcision, and the practice remains widespread in both rural and urban areas in this Horn of Africa nation.

Doing gender justice in Uganda

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LEILA ULLRICH 23 July 2015  - The efforts of NGOs and international organisations to gradually nudge post-war northern Uganda towards a ‘gender just society’ ignore the fact that gender equality also has real enemies.‘The microcredit was the biggest benefit I received. It gave me dignity and made merespectable. I can even afford to make myself beautiful. Without that, I couldn’t have found a husband. Nobody wants to marry a woman who was raped, but he finds me beautiful because I can take care of myself.’So reads the statement of a female survivor of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) who had received economic assistance by the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV), an international organization (IO) that helps the victims of the 20 year civil war that raged in Northern Uganda between 1987 and 2008. The TFV’s report claims that SGBV survivors said that this assistance helped them to see themselves as ‘real women’ again.When I asked a gender specialist what survivors like the woman quoted above mean when they say they feel like ‘real women’ again, she replied: ‘For her, this is the idea that she can be seen in her society as a woman who has value; now for better or worse this means that she can find a good husband. Her value as a woman is determined by her desirability to men. Well that is the same in a lot of cultures including mine [USA]. For her, this made her feel normal again.’This reply left me somewhat puzzled. Does that mean it is pointless to change features of sexist culture in Northern Uganda, which we have not managed to eradicate in ‘Western’ societies? Or does it imply that the ideas and aspirations of SGBV survivors should guide our understanding of what ‘gender justice’ means after war?The transition from war to peace often has complex and contradictory consequences for women. On the one hand, research suggests that women’s experiences of SGBV are frequentlycontinuous: while violence against women peaks during times of conflict, it persists after conflict, especially in the form of domestic violence. In a study on female survivors of conflict-related SGBV in Northern Uganda, 90 out of the 97 survivors interviewed said that they still face the same threats of sexual violence as in the past.