An 8-months pregnant 13 years old girl, a student of JSS 1 at Central Junior Secondary School in Angwan Bakin Kasuwa of Misau local government, Bauchi State is facing the “hardest part” of her life yet, after she was allegedly raped and impregnated by an elderly tailor who was in the habit of giving her N50 tips to lure her to bed.

The report follows an allegation raised by Prison Inmates Development Initiative (PIDI), an NGO concerned with human rights issues, where the Executive Director, Mbami Iliya Sabka narrated how Aisha Muhammed (not real name), a ‘pure’ water hawker was sexually abused and impregnated by one Mallam Babayo, a tailor in the same local government.

According to him, Babayo forcefully pulled off her clothes and raped her.

“The victim told us how, on that fateful day, she cried for help but nobody was there to rescue her. He threatened her to not tell anyone, not even her own parents, after which he forced another N50 in her hand to go and buy biscuit for herself.

“The unsuspecting victim who sold pure water to support her poor parents after school hours was always invited by the suspect to go on errands to get some of his tailoring materials and whenever she returned, he would always give her a N50 tip.

“Until sometime in mid-December 2018 or thereabout that Babayo took her to an uncompleted building owned by his elder brother, locked the gate, forced her to take off her clothes and abused her sexually. The victim is eight months pregnant and has not registered for antenatal, worse still, there’s no arrangement in place for the child’s delivery,” he said.

PIDI further told Vanguard that they have since sent a petition to the Commissioner of Police in Bauchi and the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the matter and bring the perpetrator to account for his deeds.

When Vanguard contacted the mother of the victim, after corroborating PIDI’s claims, Hafsat Muhammed said she and her family were molested by Babayo who was unwilling to grant them audience when they went to confront him with the rape and pregnancy of their teenage daughter.

She further said Babayo told them that they were too poor and couldn’t do anything to him.

“I am not happy about the situation. We went to confront Babayo with the allegations our daughter levelled against him, but he welcomed us with so much disgust and contempt, so much so that he said that we’re too poor and couldn’t do anything to him.

“I am grateful that people have taken up the case for us, because, honestly I wouldn’t have known what to do. The pregnancy is telling on her especially now that it is in it’s advanced stage. It is 8 months old now and we can’t even feed ourselves let alone prepare for the baby’s arrival,” Hafsat said, as she used her wrapper to wipe tears from her eyes intermittently. “My daughter is facing the hardest part of her life because of someone’s wickedness.”

While asking for justice for her teenage daughter, Hafsat begged help from Bauchi State government and well-meaning people to help her with prayers and financial contributions to enable her take care of her daughter and the baby she’s expecting.

“I want justice for my daughter because the person who put us in this situation is walking free on our streets. I also want to ask for assistance from our people-loving governor and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to our aid with their prayers and financial contributions to enable us overcome this dilemma we find ourselves,” she added.

The pale-looking pregnant teenager, obviously burdened by the pregnancy was too weak talk. Meanwhile, when the alleged rapist was confronted with the allegation, Mallam Babayo, on discovering that the interviewer was from Vanguard, said “I am not responsible for that pregnancy”, after which he restricted his answers to mono-syllabic words, “Yes” and “No”.

Contacting the police to find out if they did receive a petition concerning the alleged rape, the Police Public Relations Officer, Kamal Datti told Vanguard that “I will get back to you. I think the case is over a month now.” Several hours later, the Police was yet to respond even after being told that the report was urgent.

Vanguard gathered that the victim’s father who is a physically challenged man, depended on the enterprise of his wife and teenage daughter who is now pregnant for survival. (Vanguard)

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