FROM PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI
A Gombe Based businesswoman, Miss Jummai Zakka, has narrated how her young niece Charitywas allegedly raped by an undergraduate of the University of Gombe, Gombe State.
The victim is a primary three pupil and hers is one of the several reported cases of rape of minors that has become an issue in Gombe State that needs to be addressed by relevant laws and authorities.
Jummai who operated a saloon said that on that fateful day the suspect came to their residence on the pretence that he was looking for one of the workers in her saloon presumed to be his girlfriend and met only the little girl at home and allegedly took carnal knowledge of her.
Miss Zakka also a student of the Gombe State Universityexplained that on that fateful day she had gone to write examinations in school in the morning and left Charity in the custody of her workers as usual.
She told Arewa Report: “One of my workers just delivered and the husband ran away so she was living with me. I took her with the baby from Social Welfare. They are with me. There is another one they gave me from the village. So many people including two orphans are staying with me. I have an association that I am trying to register to cater for the underprivileged.
“So I am helping many people including my niece who was given to me my parents. That day when I came back around 1 in the afternoon I checked around, everybody was around but I didn’t see the little girl so I stated asking. My workers said maybe they sent her because anytime they send her she was always fast in coming back. I was confused when I didn’t see her so we started looking for her. One of my workers with baby she went home and she saw Charity lying on the ground, that her stomach is paining her. She was writhing in pain. That she had stomach pains. The woman brought Charity to my shop and as she tried to stand up, she fell. Then I decided to take her to the hospital because I never even suspected she was raped or imagined it”
Jummai who has vowed to use every legal means to ensure that justice is done because she sensed there are several attempts by the father of the suspect, a police man to scuttle justice, said she was advised by a customer in her saloon to probe the little girl as there is more than meets the eye.
I took that advice promptly and the woman brought out a cane a flogged her once and she started screaming “Isaiah, Isaiah”
“I was surprised and I stated asking her who is Isaiah and what happened to him. That Isaiah removed trouser; she was just explaining what happened.  I didn’t even know the Isaiah. I took her to Savannah Hospital and told the doctor to give us her medication first but he said he can’t give us any medication until I go and collect police report. I even forgot my phones, everything in the shop. I went back to the shop and the thought came to me that let me even know who is this Isaiah. Then I went to my neighbours and asked them who Isaiah was because my niece said was what happened and she was mentioning Isaiah. Then he came out and said he was Isaiah but he was not the one that defiled the girl. Maybe the girl didn’t know his name. That I should bring the girl so that she will point the person. We assembled all the men in the compound. There were six male in the compound, all of them in their early and late 20s.Three were living in one room and in the other room there were also three. Among these men, who is the Isaiah and she pointed him. From there I reported at the Gombe Police Division so the boy called his parents and everybody so they came. Before I could even dress Charity up, call my mother what was happening the guy’s father was already around. He said there was no need of me taking her to the hospital, that we could just take her to a nearby Chemist I said no. This is not a chemist issue, look at how this girl is sitting down. Let’s just collect the report for doctors to just check her. I am not bothered about case or anything. They said no and they were just delaying till around 5 in the evening until at last they accepted but the police said we could not take her to the private hospital, I agreed to take her to the General Hospital Gombe , but that I will not follow them, I asked why? I am supposed to follow my niece to the hospital. They refused so I let them take her to the hospital but they left and circulated this Gombe from 7 and 8 and came back around 12 midnight that there was no doctor. I insisted we go to a private hospital but they refused. I said what if I don’t want to do the check again, because I am bothered about her health but they were scared of the evidence that she will have if she went to the hospital. Before they left around 1 in the morning the boy’s father, the DPO and the IPO even opened her legs and the father even saw blood. I never knew the implications of the father’s actions until the next day when some people were explaining it to me. The next day the blood was not there again. But the DPO saw the blood, theIPO saw the blood, the father saw the blood and I saw the blood and so many people saw the blood. We went to the hospital and they advised that she should not take her bath till they examine her. The blood was not there again. At the hospital, one doctor just called Isaiah and they went to his office.  That means they saw a doctor yesterday. The doctor wrote that she was not a virgin and that he didn’t see blood but that they had tempered with the place.”
Jummai approached the Gombe State Ministry of Justice of Justice with the matter and a lawyer was assigned to handle her case. She is worried that the defendant’s lawyers and the father of the suspect were bringing all sorts of barriers.
“That my niece who is just nine has been having sex. That I am a bad girl, a gold-digger. They didn’t even take us to the CID before taking us to court. The father is just manipulating the case. He found my mother’s number and called her. My mother called me and advised me to forget about the case and settle out of court. That they asked what we have spent. I told them I have spent up to N30, 000. My mother said we just collect N100, 000. I said no, they will think we are looking for money”

She said her consolation is that her niece did not contract HIV or any veneral disease.
“But I am willing to press the case until there is justice for this small girl. The boy is still denying it and the father is insulting me that I want to make money so I asked the girl to lie. I was surprised to hear all these abuses. The case will be taken to tribunal because she is a small girl”
When contacted, the legal practitioner handling the case Barrister Dore Baras, said she was not competent to speak on the case and directed our correspondent to the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Gombe State to get clearance befoire she could comment on it.

 DAMATURU, YOBE, ON MY MIND by PAUL ORUDE
Is there any Nigerian adult living both within and outside this country that hasn’t heard of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State?  Known as the Young Shall Grow, Yobe, carved out of Borno State in 1991, was an emerging north east state with lots of promise. I was born in this beautiful semi desert town in the 1970s but taken to Warri as a little boy. After my primary school education at Olodi , Warri , I returned to Damaturu in 1986 for my secondary school education. As a Wafi, area guy, it was difficult for me to adjust at first when I first arrived Damaturu. I was Ba Hausa. I spoke clean Wafi Pidgin English. Boy it was a big contrast.  But trust area na. Within a short period I quickly acclimatized and made friends. I also started secondary school and it was fun. Among my friends then till this day are Igbos, (The Oragbunams) Kanuris, (Bilkisu, Kyari)  Yorubas (Kehinde, Alaba etc) among other ethnic groups. There was no Boko Haram. It was so peaceful. It was memorable. We lived as One Nigerians. I never felt any element of discrimination because I was Urhobo. Today a seed of hate has been sowed and sadly, ignorant Nigerians who have never travelled outside their place of birth, speakj nothing bt hate about other people and tribes. My parents had been here for decades. Damaturu, Oh Damaturu. It was a place to be, for me. I haven’t been there for almost  10 years after my university education and national youth service.  But I always remember DT with nostalgia. I reminisce over my boyhood life there whenever a bomb explodes and many are killed. Is this the same Damaturu I lived? It was an unbelievable transformation.  Man’s inhumanity to man. The last time I was in Damaturu was in 2007, to visit my elder brother, Peter. Peter and all his friends have fled now. They are scattered-some to Abuja, others to the east. Peter moved his family to Warri and adjusting to the new life was hell. Naija. Some of his business associates in Damaturu were killed. What used to be a thriving commercial town had been shattered by insurgency. Me, I didn’t have the  gut or ‘liver’ to go back. But I have colleagues like Alkassim Bala of Radio Nigeria who are still working  and living there. Well, I plan to go there early June. I long to see my Damaturu or DT as we used to call it then. Will I still see the house I used to stay at Abasha ward? What about the Igbo quartres?  What of that old Kanuri man that was so fond of me? Are the beautiful houses in the GRA and the places around Federal Poly Damaturu, where my friend Celestine Oreagbuna lived still standing? I plan to go there  first week of June to do a story as part of the activities to mark the 2016 Day of the African Child (DAC). As usual, the DAC for this year will hold on 16 June. The theme for this year’s event is, “Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting all Children’s Rights”. As a teenager schooling in Damaturu, I never knew conflict. But sadly, today, thousands of Yobe children have been orphaned, rendered homeless while their education has stopped. What if I was one of them? Will I be where I am today?  I intend to tell their stories and give a voice to these kids caught in the Boko Haram insurgency.  They hold the future of our dear country. What is happening to the kids caught in the insurgency crisis? Where are they? I want to go and see my beloved Damaturu, and even Buni Yade? Remember Buni Yadi? Sad. This was where some Boko Haram members entered a school, the Federal Government College, and slaughtered 44 students.  Peter’s son John was in JSS 2. In the  heat of the insurgency, I advised him to transfer his son to a school in Warri. He was reluntanct. Why cant he remain there and spend holidays with me in Bauchi. Umm. Difficyult prepositonj. Who will go to B/Yadi to fetch him during holidays? I defineitly cant risk my life doing that and the child should not be subjected to such risk. Peter agreed in the end and took John to a private school in Warri.  The next term, just less then three months, the BH struck in John’s former school. What if John was still there? One of the teachers who escaped told me the gory details of massacre of innocent teenage students. But Buni Yadi used to be a melting point. A place to be. My father used to do business there in those good old days and even built a big mud house with several rooms which was big enough for my elder brother to use for Cinema business which thrived in the late 90s and early 2000. Mmmm. Do people still watch cinema, with bombings, killings, and curfew? I know  most youngsters then  before the advent of smart phones, internet and laptops, used to troop to my brother’s cinema in their hundreds to watch premier league matches, India films and Kannywood movies and of course the popular Ibro, of blessed memory used to be a hit. Buni Yadi was a lovely place, just like Damaturu, inhabited by Igbos, Yorobas, Hausa and many other tribes, all co-existing in peace and unity, a mini dream Nigeria. It was also a thriving commercial town. Not was Buni Gari, another great place, with a railway track jutting through, suggesting its commercial strength. And Buni Yadi is not far from Goniri, where the former governor and now a senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim hail from. Well let me not bore you anymore. I will surely come back with interesting jists, I promise you. But  pray for me ooo. I also intend to touch Gashua. I love Gashua. My father once lived there before migrating to DT. Mhhh. Gashua, the headquarter of Bade. These places are nice to be. Take time to travel down, especially now that the insurgency has abated. What about the Emir of Bade? I longed to see him. He is a courageous  leader and one of the first if not only traditional ruler  in the whole county to openly oppose ex president Obasanjo's third term bid in an exclusive interview I had with him back then when there were mixed reactions to the plot to elongate OBJ’s tenure by amending the Nigeria constitution. Can it happen in Nigeria? Well it didn’t happen thanks to the National Assembly, Nigerians, the media and courageous leaders like the Emir of Bade. Pls follow my blog for more information on my DT, Yobe trip. When exactly do I want to leave? I keep that to my chest. Who knows, I may be there already or have even left last month

When a man is called woman wrapper

When a man is called woman wrapper
What is a man supposed to do? When you are there for your spouse, people will accuse you of being a softie, and madam is controlling you. When you  try to be a 'man' or hard as we saw in Adicie's Purple Hibiscles, you are a dictator. The other day the news went virile when Nigeria's top actress Omotola popularly called Omo Sexy admitted that her hubby sometimes go to the market to do the shopping for her/. And no sooner had she express herself than Amebos started accusing her of controlling her husby. Or the huby a woman wrapper? My brother, just be you. To love is not a sign of weakness. If anything it is the greatest commandment and for me any man that does it is a strong man because to love is not even easy with all the weaknesses of man (and of course woman). Have a nice day my folks