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.